Interview with Roy Khan

What better time than now is there to interview Roy Khan. With a new album coming, Kamelot are the hot topic of the day in the press. I talked with the charismatic vocalist of Kamelot, ex-Conception and fabulous songwriter about the Conception situation, his role in Kamelot now and in the beginning and of course about the upcoming masterpiece “Epica”...

Roy, most people nowadays know you as the vocalist of Kamelot, but from 1993 until 1997, you released four very good albums with Conception. Unfortunately, the band broke up after the release of the last album. Although I can't believe it, rumours went that the split was caused

by moderate sales figures. Was that the reason?

Well, the sales figures weren’t getting better, that’s true. Actually, they were going downwards since the “Parallel Minds” album. But the main reason was that we were thrown of the tour with Stratovarius four days before we were going out. This of course totally pissed us off and put us in a really bad mood. Besides, we were all working on side projects. I was already busy back then with my never ending solo project, Tore (Ostby) was working on Ark and Ingar (Amlien, SL) was putting up his black metal project called Crest Of Darkness. We all thought that we should use this situation as an excuse to take a break and to put Conception on ice for a little while. Now, this break is still on and therefore it’s being looked upon as a split-up, while it’s not. There might be some sort of reunion one day, but considering the success that I’m having with Kamelot right now, Tore being on tour and Ingar who’s quite busy as well, this doesn’t have a top priority of course.

So there’ll be no new Conception album released in the next couple of years then?

Well, maybe. Two to three years, that might well be.

You just told me about your never ending solo project. What can you tell about that?

I didn’t have the time to do it actually. I have some 34 songs now, that are basically there and ready to be recorded. I’ve been so busy since the pre-production of “Karma”, living, dreaming and breathing Kamelot now for such a long time. And when I finally have a month off, I can’t just sit down and be busy with more music. I think I should take the time it takes to finish it. I don’t have a list of musicians yet, but I don’t think that’s going to be any problem.

What musical direction will it be in?

Something in between Kamelot and Conception I would say. There will obviously be a close reference to both bands, as I’m the singer and part of the creative source of them. Maybe it will be a little more jazzy, a little more progressive than Kamelot. That depends on what songs I pick out.

Anyway, you almost immediately joined Kamelot. Were you already in contact with them before the temporary demise of Conception?

No, actually I was in Oslo looking for an apartment. I was on my way back home. Thomas (Youngblood) called me on the phone and said he’d read about Conception on the Internet and he was considering about taking me in, as their former singer (Mark Vanderbilt, SL) could not do the vocals on their new album, at that time “Siege Perilous”. I didn’t really want to do it and thought about it for a while. I had never been to America before and the pay was really good, so I gave it a shot. I totally liked the guys from the first time I met them. Me and Thomas did a bonus track for Japan, a song that we wrote together, which was basically the only thing that I did creatively for that album, except for a couple of lyrics and light changes in the melody lines. There was some sort of chemistry and we said “OK, there might be quite a good foundation here for a further collaboration”.

Did you know Kamelot's first two albums "Eternity" and "Dominion”?

Yeah, I listened to them briefly before I went over to the States. It was kind a different style than what I like to be honest, but there definitely were some cool elements. Anyway, I can’t be really objective on that (laughs).

You joined Kamelot during the work on "Siege Perilous"? Were you happy with the result?

Not really, to be honest. I was fairly happy with the given starting point, which was a total demand for me. I always want to be 100% part of the creative process, otherwise it’s not interesting for me. So, that was different on the following albums, which was totally OK for Thomas too.

"Siege Perilous" is the only Kamelot album with Tommy Newton in the credits. Did you bring him in, as you were used to working with him with Conception?

Yeah, I guess so. I can’t remember, to be honest (laughs). I know that Thomas went over from America to do the mix for the album with Tommy. I wasn’t even there. It must have been on my advice, but I’m absolutely not happy with the job Tommy did. The mix is… a bit weird. Tommy also likes to work with material that he loves, also for production purposes and if he doesn’t like it, he can’t put his whole heart into it.

The last song on "Siege Perilous", the classical influenced instrumental "Siege", features your buddy Tore Ostby on acoustic guitar. I guess it was strange to work with him as a guest musician that time?

Right! Tore was accidentally down there! He was touring around with the bass player from Ark (Randy Coven, SL). Thomas just asked him and said “it would be cool if you could do an acoustic solo on one of our songs”. That’s how he ended up on “Siege Perilous”. I wasn’t even there when the parts were recorded. It happened totally out of my control.

On "The Fourth Legacy", which was released in 1998, you were involved in the songwriting of each song. In my view that album introduced the fans to a new, more symphonic and more open sound. Is this coincidence?

No, it’s no coincidence of course. When I started writing for that album with Thomas, I had all these years of experience with Conception and learned a lot about the business side of the process, about recording an album and especially and how to arrange and write the songs. But of course, also the input of Miro and Sascha (Paeth) as keyboarder and string arranger and producer, had its influence on the overall sound of the band. From that album on, the production is really brilliant.

After the release of "The Fourth Legacy", the extensive New Allegiance Tour through Europe followed, during which the live album "The Expedition" was recorded. What are the most pleasurable memories that you have from that period?

The Expedition tour… I can’t remember (laughs). It’s really hard to say. To be honest, I really can’t remember a specific gig. In general, it was great to be able to go out there again and present music that I helped creating. That was a real kick for us and the sign that Kamelot as a band are on the right track.

As the band don't have a permanent keyboard player, Günter Werno of German progressive metal band Vanden Plas took care of that duty during the tour. How did he get involved?

How did he get involved… I think it was Thomas who sent him a mail or something like that. Maybe on the advice of somebody, but I really can’t remember.

How was it to work with him?

Oh, really cool! Günter is a total trip, he’s really funny and he’s technically really good. We also worked with him on the “Karma” tour… No, we didn’t work with him on the “Karma” tour, he went with us to some festivals that same summer. Then, we used a different keyboarder again on the “Karma” tour.

Last year followed the release of "Karma". Putting together this interview, I listened to the band's albums one after the other and what strikes me, is that there's more double bass drums on "Karma" than on Kamelot's former albums. Were you asked or forced to become heavier in order to sell even more albums?

You think there are more double bass drums on “Karma” than on “The Fourth Legacy”? Well maybe, we never thought about it like that. Anyway, no one is definitely forcing us to do anything. We would never sign a contract that says that I or we don’t have 100% artistical freedom. Whatever we did, it was our own idea (laughs).

Also on "Karma", you were part of the songwriting team together with Thomas. The band's lyrics always were and are influenced by fantasy stories, mostly with a medieval background, as with Conception, the lyrics had a more realistic and personal background. Was it hard for you to adapt to writing a different way?

In the beginning it was. But from “Karma” on, the lyrics of Kamelot are very similar to the Conception lyrics, or at least they’re writing in the same style. On “Karma”, there’s almost no reference to knights, swords or dragons at all and on “Epica” there’s absolutely nothing of that kind. But of course, there is something about Kamelot which is Thomas’ idea and that is that we want to make the music very visual. We want to paint pictures with our music. Our lyrics, if they’re happening back in time or in the future, are about the topics of everyday life. We also write about themes that are current. But there is a difference. For example, things we could write about with Conception were politics or cyber space. We could write about more modern topics, without feeling that it didn’t fit the frame of what Conception was meant to be. With Kamelot, it would be totally out of place to write about – for instance – computers or anything that might give people a reference to modern society.

Over to the new album then. What immediately struck me when I saw the promotional copy of "Epica", is the again impressive artwork of Derek Gores.

Oh, thanks man!

What does he do besides designing Kamelot covers?

Well, he is a professional designer. He works with graphics. What else he is doing, I have no idea of (laughs).

Does he work for other bands as well?

No, we’re the only band that he works for!

There are a few traditional instruments used on the new album. Which ones are those and who plays them?

Well, first there’s the djembe, which Casey (Grillo, drums) is playing, but he’s doing it as a replacement for the drums. Then there’s the D-Bass, which is played by… what’s his name again… Andreas?... Neygen…

André Neygenfind?

Yes, of course! There’s also the accordion or bandoneon, played by some Argentinean guy. I can’t even remember his name… Francis or something (laughs). I have absolutely no idea what all these people’s names are. Some of their appearances were mere coincidence, some of them were planned out. Their uses depend on the kind of atmosphere that develops during the writing process, the pre-production and the recording of a particular song, where we handle the last details on the overall sound. The bandoneon for instance was planned out long before. The reason we wanted to use it in “Lost & Damned”, was because of the tango feeling in the verse of that song. We wanted to emphasise that feeling by adding an instrument that’s really used for that kind of music.

How would you compare the new album with “Karma”, the previous one?

I would say that it’s slightly more progressive and way more theatrical. The fact that it’s a concept album, makes it more of a one piece thing. Everything is more linked together, with the sound effects and the interludes in between the songs. Listening to this album is like sitting down and watching a musical.

The lyrics on "Epica" were written around a concept inspired by Goethe's “Faust”. What can you tell about the story and the lyrical topics?

They’re indeed based on “Faust”, on “Faust Pt. 1” to be precise. Like “Epica Pt. 2” will be based on “Faust Pt. 2”. But when we say loosely based, it really means ‘loosely’. The book took Goethe, the German writer 50 years to write and it is extremely complex. It is simply impossible for us to capture whatever he wanted to say with his book on a 60-minute CD. But the story is similar.

Interview with Thomas Youngblood

Kamelot is a new band to me. I only recently got into them by pure luck. I got sent a copy of their The Expedition live disc. I’m not gonna say I fell in love head over heels but I did enjoy what I heard on it. Prior to this live disc Kamelot had released four albums building a growing following with each new album. Karma is the title of their fifth and latest album. An album that is American styled power metal married with an European sense for the grandiose. Calling your album Karma and having a song trilogy about Elisabeth Bathori opened up for some questions to be asked. At my service I had guitarist and main songwriter Thomas Youngblood.-Anders Ekdahl

You released a sort of live album called The Expedition. Why did you not release a complete live album instead of this collection of bits ’n’ pieces? "The idea was originally to do an EP with only 5 live songs. The record company wanted to charge full price so we added more live songs and then we added some unreleased tracks. I mean, it’s not Kamelot’s only live record. It’s more sort of a snapshot in time of what we are doing. We plan on releasing another live record, which probably will be a double with DVD and things like that. The Expedition was more a treat for the fans until the next record would come out."

This new album is full of beautiful melodies. When you write the melody lines do you have a clear vision of what you want them to be before you put them to paper? "Pretty much. The way a lot of the songs came together was basically that we had vocal melodies or we had music that we wrote vocal melodies over. We usually always have the melodies written before we do the lyrics."

Where do you draw inspiration from when you write your melodies? "Music melodies just come out of the air, out of your head. I just play around on a keyboard or a guitar and these ideas pop out. There are also lots that are written that we don’t like which we throw away. When it comes to vocal melodies that’s just something Khan (first name Roy – vocals. The rest of the band is Glenn Barry – bass and Casey Grillo – drums) is able to create from the vibe he gets from the music. We also try to think about the way the melodies should fit the lyrical concept of what the song is about. On Forever the idea was Khan’s to use the Edvard Grieg melody from one of his songs. That’s the only one I know of that was actually inspired directly by a classical piece. Everything else that we’ve done is totally original."

You’ve named your new album Karma. Was it hard to decide on a cover to go with the title? "Not really. Elisabeth represents the side of Karma that we felt also fit into the title of the record. We wanted the whole record to have a certain kind of vibe, a sort of inspirational line that goes through all the songs and for us karma is a very important aspect of that. And also something that we feel in our personal lives is very important on how we treat the earth and other people with a certain kind of respect that we want for ourselves. It did make sense to name the album Karma."

Given that the album is called Karma. Do you believe that man creates his own destiny? "I think that there is a certain path that you are given but you have to make the right decisions in your life to fulfil the destiny that is laid out for you. No matter what you do, if you have a destined thing to happen, it’s gonna happen, I don’t believe that at all. Whether it’s hard work or going through life you should make sure you portray a certain picture of yourself that other people can respect. I think all these things are very important. I would say it’s sort of a 50/50. You have to really focus, whether it’s music or architecture, these things have to be done with big decisions that lay the foundation to these roads of life. Karma is more the way you live your life will be reflected when you die and when you come back if you believe in reincarnation. If you lived your life as an asshole and killing people and you come back you will pay for it in certain ways. In America when somebody has a certain vibe, when you meet somebody and you can tell that they are not really good persons you say that they have bad karma. You don’t want to have them around you, they bring bad luck whether it’s going out to dinner or whatever. The whole thing for me when it comes to karma is that I don’t want to be around people I don’t respect or other people don’t respect. For Kamelot, the team we have whether it’s the band, the producers or the road crew we make sure we have people that are cool and that everybody gets along and that there’s always a good vibe going on. It pays off in the long run."

Karma is more of an eastern philosophy. Are you into the Hindu or Buddhist concept of Karma? "Not exactly. As far as reincarnation, I’m not really sure I believe in that. I do believe that the way we react to each other and to the environment are very important to how it goes for us as individuals. That is something I try to subscribe to in my daily life. For me it works out. Things are going very well for Kamelot and me. A part of that is because we try to do things we feel are right."

On this album you’ve done a trilogy about Elisabeth Bathori. Given her bloody past the lyrics seem to deal more with her emotional state than her barbaric behaviours. "Other bands have covered the topic of Elisabeth Bathori (or "Erzabet Bathory" - ED)). She has always been portrayed as a vampire and we wanted to look more at the human side, who she was and why she became who she was. That was our spin on the whole thing. It’s easier to put out a really good lyrical atmosphere with the more emotional side of who she was. That’s why we wanted to portray her that way."

Do you believe that she was insane or just believed that she really could gain immortality? "A person who can do that, for whatever reason she did it for, must be insane. To kill 600 people and to think that their blood was going to make you young and preserve your youth, you have to be insane to think that. I also think that the story, just because in today’s society we are so obsessed with youth and beauty, sort of reflects where we are in today’s society.

But isn’t it strange that the people around here kept letting her do whatever it was that she was doing? "When you look a history there are always good examples of how these atrocities were allowed to go on and on until finally somebody gives something about it. It seems strange but she’s a countess with a certain amount of power and she can kind of cover things up until finally it can’t be denied that it’s something that needs to be taken care of."

When you eye through the booklet all the lettering is done in white except for the song Requiem For The Innocent. Is there a specific reason for this? "There are rumours that the red ink is blood. The actual reason is that this part of the story is where all the murdering takes place. We wanted the red to be symbolic of that part of the story."

Karma is your fifth studio album so you’ve been doing this for some time now. When Sweden’s HammerFall broke through did you notice that the interest in heavy metal rose or was it happening anyway? "I thought it was happening any way. I remember being at the offices of Nuclear Blast when they got the master from HammerFall. At that time I felt it was the right timing for them but it takes more than just a good record. It also takes a record company that is willing to push you to the limits and I think at that time Nuclear Blast did a great job with HammerFall. What that did unfortunately was that it brought out all these clone HammerFall kind of bands that flooded the market."

From what I remember you lived on one side of the Atlantic Ocean and Roy lived on the other side. Is it still like this? "Basically we are based in Tampa Bay, Florida and Roy lives in Oslo, Norway. The way things work is really cool for us because we’re able to travel and part of that travelling also brings inspiration to new songs. Roy has been talking about coming to America and living here for a few years but to be honest with you the way things work now I wouldn’t want to change it. The only real disadvantage is that we can’t rehearse as a real band. We have to get together three or four times a year to do rehearsals and work on songs like that instead of being able to do it once a week like a band would be able to in the same town. That’s the only disadvantage but I think the advantages outweigh that. Khan for us is more than a good vocalist. He’s one of the best vocalists in my opinion. His input into Kamelot and his experience in the past has been an element to where we are today."

The impression I get is that Kamelot do better business in Europe than you do in The States. "Up until now we have but things are changing in America and Canada. I’d say that we’ll probably sell as much in Germany as we will here. Germany has always been our largest market and then the southern parts of Europe and then we have Scandinavia but I think America is starting to finally… the tide is changing. I think the Internet has helped that. I think that the kids that are coming up, learning guitar are tired of this crap that they hardly have to learn how to play guitar. I think metal will come back in a certain way. It’s gonna be in a newer form and the way bands work will be different in the next few years as far as the American market. Yes, it’s definitely picking up for us here. The best way to let the fans know about you is through adverts in magazines. The kids buy the magazines and they see it whether it’s articles or full-page adverts talking about the record. Letting the fans know about the reviews it’s received. Give them confidence that it’s worth their money to buy the album."

Something that I’ve been busting my brain trying to figure out is when and for what reason I got into heavy metal. Do you know when that defining moment happened to you? "I think I was probably 13 or 14 years old and I liked all kinds of music. Basically I liked what my sisters liked, my sisters are older than I am, so I listened to Peter Frampton, Yes and these old bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Part of the influence for me was that my sisters had these heavier albums and I started to hear of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Iron Maiden was the first band that really turned me on to heavy metal because they were able to do songs and make them a bit more complex and they also evoked these certain images with their music and lyrics. I think that they were the main band for me when it came to heavy metal. I still like different kinds of music. Heavy metal was just what I chose to play. - The first drummer of Kamelot was a big Kiss fan. When I was younger I was more into the musical side of things and not so much the whole theatrical side. When I looked at Kiss I thought they were too simple cause I liked Yes and stuff like that when I was 13 years old. As I‘ve gotten older I’ve started to appreciate bands that aren’t that complex as well. So I think I’ve grown into appreciating all different types of music that aren’t so complex."

Interview with KHAN

KAMELOT - by Frank Bøkseth 2000/2003

Kamelot are a new band to me. But since I got a chance to listen to their “Epica” album, I found their music appealing. Mr. Roy Khan’s voice is tremendous, and worked for me as an opening door to Kamelot’s music. I’ll move backwards and learn about their elder stuff, especially the two former albums. After a week I decided that an interview had to be done, and contributor Frank Bøkseth could do it. This interview is done in two parts, where the first was done back in January 2000 by Bøkseth, while the second part was done in February 2003. This way you get to learn this magnificent band by words as well…

Part I

Concerning “The Fourth Legacy”. “Yeah, I'm very pleased. We'd been expecting this would be a record that would be considerably better than the last one (“Siège Perilous”), so you can say it became like we hoped it would be.”So you're having great expectations to this album? “Yes, at least now that reviews and stuff like that have begun to come rolling in, things are doing fine at the moment. Myself and Thomas (Youngblood-guitar) have been doing like almost 200 interviews the last two weeks, and all the reviews are over the top, the response on the net has also been good. We've been expecting a lot from this album, and it's fun to see that what you've been working on the last year is being appreciated by those it was meant for.”You weren't “unemployed” for such a long time after Conception decided to take a break... “No, you can't really say so, no.. I worked a bit on a solo-project to begin with, then, or it has developed into more like a pop-project now, together with Tore (Østby - was the guitarist in Conception, now in Ark - F B). But no, it didn't take more than 4 or 5 months after Conception's break before Thomas called me and asked if I could help them out with their latest album, since Mark Vanderbilt (the previous singer) had quit.”So you weren't meant to be a “full” member of the band in the beginning? “No, in the beginning it was only like, I helped them out on that record and then we just took things from there after that. It was under those conditions I agreed to do “Siège Perilous”, but I felt that the band had potential and in the co-operation with Thomas, and the others as well I continued. Now it's mostly Thom and I who create the music, but things went really well and we're having a good time together, I feel comfortable together with those guys.”

You've put a great deal of work in the preparations to this album... “Thomas was here in Norway a couple of weeks and I was a few weeks over there, there were two sessions we had late winter/early spring last year ('99). And then we had a pre-production in July, which took about ten days. We started to work straight after we had done the last tour, like, on each our side of the Atlantic, exchanging ideas and mailing mp3-files to each other and talking by phone a lot. We talk on the phone on a daily basis.”Tell me a little about the recording itself... “Sure. Now we were so lucky that we got Sascha (Paeth) as the producer, he was on top of the list of the producers we wanted. The reason was, of course, except for the success he's had with Angra and Rhapsody, that we wanted a more ‘symphonic’ sound. And we'd been talking to a lot of people inside the business who said that he was a hardworking man with an eye for details, and that he was a very pleasant person to work with, which was correct. We were happy that he was willing to work with us, of course he got paid for it as well, but he can pretty much choose which bands he wants to work with. But then again, the material was something completely different this time around, since it's been me and Thomas doing it all together. The recordings themselves took place in Wolfsburg in Germany, in the studios where Sascha work. There wasn't much one could do there, it's in the middle of Germany and there was a huge Volkswagen factory there, not much else. As if that weren't enough, it was in a village well outside of Wolfsburg, so there wasn't much one could do when you weren't in the studio working. Myself, I took a trip to Hannover, that wasn't all that far away, there I paid Tommy Newton and his wife a visit, and I said hello to the others I know there, too." (Tommy Newton produced 3 Conception albums, and mixed “Siége Perilous”, a mix Khan was not too content with...- FB)

I read somewhere that drummer Casey Grillo got sick during the recording... “Yeah, that's right, he got really dead-sick. Fortunately he'd already done most of his part in the recording when he got sick. He said himself that he was all right, but he was barely able to stand straight, he was shaking like a leaf and his eyes were all over the place. He had 41°C fever...there was some kind of virus, and he almost passed out, it was a bit critical there at a certain point.., well not critical, but he had to go to the hospital for a few days, and after that it was straight back to the US.”

You have also been helped out by a little army of guest musicians... “Yeah, we've had lots of people giving their contributions that were also one of the reasons why we wanted to work with Sascha, he's got lots of connections everywhere, you name it and he can get anyone, all kinds of different instruments.”

You've also sacked the keyboardist since the last album, David Pavlicko... “Well, sacked and sacked..., he quit by himself, so... We were also interested in doing rather huge changes whereas the keyboards concerned compared to the last album, and he weren't all that keen about the touring part either, he found himself a girl and things got a bit... It suited us fine anyway, so… Then we got the opportunity to take advantage of the abilities of Miro, he's working close with Sascha, so he's responsible for all keyboards, string arrangements and such stuff on the album.”

Så, are you going to get a new, full-time keyboard player then, or what? “Well, I don't know really. It worked just fine in Conception with hired people, but it would've been fine to find one, but then he'd have to keep a certain standard, and also interested in being in the band for a while. We haven't really discussed that matter so much yet, we've had our hands full with the new album and other stuff, such as our Internet page. We're working with people in the States and a graphic design firm in Germany, and there's been a lot of back and forth there. But we'll have to find a keyboardist pretty soon, we're probably going on tour with Crimson Glory in April/May, so we need to have someone well before that, in order for him to learn the stuff in time for the tour. But, as said we haven't thought so much about it yet, the line-up as it is right now works very well, so it isn't enough just to find someone who's dedicated and can play our stuff, he'd also have to fit in socially, that's just as important.”

As you said earlier, you've become considerably more involved in the writing process.. “Yeah, sure, the previous album was more or less finished when I came into the band. Thom called me ten days before I flew over to Florida to record the thing, and I got the songs three days before, so there wasn't exactly enormous preparations on my part then, and all vocal lines were written for Mark, and the voice is a rather personal instrument, so I didn't feel too comfortable with that solution. I wouldn't minded having a couple of months extra before the recording, but I did an decent job on that album I guess, the others in the band weren't near being 100% happy with that album they neither, so...”You managed to write a couple of lyrics or so… “Two lyrics, and one or two vocal-lines, I think.”

So what do you write in the band now? “Mostly all vocal-lines, and I'm also in on the music, especially when it comes to arrangements. There's a pretty big difference in the structure of the songs now, compared to before. It would've been foolish not to use the experience I've got after nearly ten years in the trade. But it's a bit complicated when it comes to splitting the credits and so on. The 1st song is all Thomas' except for the vocal line and the last song is all mine, and everything between is sort of at sixes and sevens, it's a messy mixture of my own and Thomas' parts. One of us has come up with an idea, and the other has built something upon that idea, and so on. So in the end we just agreed that we'll split this fifty-fifty, it was a good solution for the both of us, it would've become cumbersome to split things up in percentages.”

You've put your unmistakable brand on this band now. On the two first records, I'd say Kamelot were a pretty ordinary power metal band, but now it's got more of an own identity. The band has changed the direction, you could say... “That was also the intention. I saw upon it as a challenge when I joined the band, I wouldn't have been especially happy if we should've continued to make music in that same way, not that I say that the things Thom have done before weren't good, there was just something unfinished about it, a bit unstructured. The co-operation between Thomas and me is.... Well, I was a bit anxious before we started, I know how it is to work with egocentric guitarists, but we are very open-minded both of us, and if one of us gets an idea, we develop it, we sit down and discuss it and takes it from there. Everybody, or..., well, we're sort of everybody then, but now it is so, that it's me and Thomas who are the creative forces in the band, so..., but I'm very happy with it, it works really fine.”

It seems that it's lilac that's the ‘official’ Kamelot-colour… “Hahahah, yeah, and I have to defend that in every single interview. God knows why. It's been Thomas mostly who's been guiding the man who made the cover, a guy called Derek Gores, and he got it lilac this time too, he's got to have a special preference for that colour, I can't see why else he'd do that...”

You were also involved in Crest of Darkness' “The Ogress” album... “Yeah, it was great fun. I can't really say that black metal is the genre I'm most familiar with, to put it like that, but it was fun and it's possible I'll be doing a guest appearance on their next album as well.”

All the old Conception'ers have now found new homes, and one can say that there is a certain difference between the different bands... “Yeah, I guess so, yes. There's me & Kamelot, Tore & Ark, and Ingar (Amlien)'s Crest of Darkness, and Arve (Heimdal) is playing in a very good blues band (besides a bit of playing in Crest of Darkness).”

Conception did a couple of gigs in Trondheim... Can you tell me a little bit about the 1st one, (in '91).... heh. “The 1st one, yes, that one was a remarkable success, haha. We played in this place by the river, and there was like 30 people or something there to see us. It was a good show, though, we had good sound. After the show we went back to the hotel room for the nachspiel and that room was a complete mess afterwards. We had to use some of the money we got for playing to pay for it, not exactly a rock'n'roll-happening to brag about back home...”

Sure, but any ‘rockstar’ with the slightest bit of self respect has to thrash a hotel room or fourteen. You know, you ain’t a real rockstar until you've smashed a hotelroom.... haaargh. “It was a bit stupid of us, it got pretty expensive, especially for me and Ingar, we were a little bit worse than the rest. We came up to the room after having breakfast, the clock must have been two o'clock or so, and then we see the cleaning lady, she's standing there in the doorway, crying! I didn't know what it was all about right then, 'cause I hadn't registered what had happened when I went to eat, but when I looked at the room I got it… It looked like there had been a tornado inside…, pieces of glass lay shattered all over, the sheets were torn apart, scorching marks after cigarettes, the curtains lay on the floor and a picture were broken. So you can say it was no fun at that time, to spend our part of the fee on the hotel room, but when I look back at it now, it was kinda funny.”OK. What happens now after the release of “The Fourth Legacy”? “Well, we’ll be pretty busy doing interviews and promotion for some time just now. After that is done we'll have to think about the tour. It's a bit unofficial yet, but we'll be doing most of Europe, but not Norway unfortunately, there isn't enough money in the cash box to do that. I hope we'll get the chance another time around, though.”

What else is happening? “We're having plans about releasing the next record about this time next year, we don't wanna wait too long between each record, it depends a bit on how far we've come in the writing process. We'll probably be using Sascha again, so it's a bit up to his time schedule as well. We'll probably do a concept album, we had some plans about doing it on this album, too, but we decided to give it some time, since it's the first record I'm really participating on. Besides, there's been a total inflation on concept albums nowadays. Soon there won't be a metalband that haven't done a so-called ‘concept album’. I think it takes a little bit more than just writing a bunch of songs and then just tie them together lyric-wise. I don't think there's that many concept albums that are really thoroughly done, “Operation: Mindcrime” (Queensrÿche) stands for me as the ultimate concept album, Pink Floyd's “The Wall” must also be mentioned. Besides that there have also been some quite good metal albums in the recent time, Ayreon, for instance, but that's a league below, I think. I'm not saying we'll excel “Mindcrime”, I'm just saying that we've gotta have the skills to do such an album, before we start to do it.

Part II

Since this is the 1st Kamelot-interview in Imhotep mag, I thought I should give a brief introduction to the band; They were formed in Florida in '91 and released their 1st album; “Dominion” 3 years later. Prior to their 3rd album, Norwegian Roy Khan (Conception) joined, since Conception had been put on ice at the moment. On the next album “The 4th Legacy”, from ‘99, things started to happen. It was produced by Sascha Paeth and Miro, known from productions with Rhapsody and Angra. They released a livealbum, “The Expedition”, the next year, and in 2001 came “Karma”. Now in 2003 they're here with “Epica”. Line-up (it's been the same since “Siége Perilious”) : Khan - vocals, Thomas Youngblood - guitar, Glenn Barry - bass, Casey Grillo - drums.

Tell me about the album... “Well, the production of this album was not all that different from what we've done earlier, except for the drums, which were recorded in the States, most of them, anyway, together with an Brazilian drum engineer. The whole production took us 5 months to finish, and that's the longest production I've ever been involved in. This is also a concept-album, the 1st concept-album Kamelot have made. It's based on the first part of Faust, and part two of “Epica” will then, of course, be based upon the second part of Faust. I won't say too much about this, it's just a story, and it's only partly based on Faust, but it's a story that's pretty similar on the surface. There is this person (Ariel), looking for the truth, something that would give life a meaning. On a certain point in the story he makes a deal with the devil, and this partnership with the devil, or Mephisto as he's called here, causes lots of trouble for Ariel, and especially in his relation to Helena, who represents the good, and innocence on the record.”I've heard that it's slightly influenced by David Lynch, also... “Sure, we use a lot from the movies, both when it comes to the musical picture, and when we try to imagine how passages between the different songs should be, and how the lyrics should be gradually built up. This to the point that when you're working on the 2nd or 3rd song, you also have to think about the 4th and 5th, at least the next song, or maybe the 7th or the last, - if there's going to be any reference to other places on the record.”

On “Karma” there was a little 3-song trilogy about Elizabeth Bathory… “That's right.”

I read somewhere that there was planned a continuance of that.... “Yes, it's true what you say, we had plans about that, but then we've been so busy working on “Epica”, so we never got the time to do something about it. We could have done an extended version of “Elizabeth”, because we had a lot more material then, available, when we recorded it...”

Whole songs, or just lyrics? “Whole songs, yes, which were not recorded at the time. We thought about doing something about it, but since we've been occupied by “Epica”..., it just hasn't come to the point where we've been able to do anything else yet, then.”

On this album is says that ‘all music & lyrics are by Kamelot’, while on the previous two, there has been you & Thom cooperatively that's been responsible. Does that mean that Glenn & Casey's been more involved this time or what? “Yes, a tiny bit... There's a couple of things that's been written during rehearsal, besides that, it's not that much, no. But we thought that we could just as well put it all on Kamelot, just to make everyone happy. It didn't matter all that much for Thom and me how we did that, but of course, it's we who do most of the songwriting still.”I had a conversation with you a couple of years ago, in relation with “The 4th Legacy”, and then you told me that you'd begun to think about doing an concept-album, and you had the hopes of achieving to do something like “Operation : Mindcrime” or “The Wall”", at least those were the albums that you sat as ‘"the highest standard’. Do you feel that “Epica” somehow reaches up to these standards? “Well, it's in an different genre, we're not comparable to neither Queensrÿche nor Pink Floyd, but personally I'm very satisfied with the way we've pursued and carried out the idea that this should be like sitting down and watch a theatre piece, or a musical or an opera. Everything's done very visual and we've really tried to twist our brains to think out new elements, and bring new ideas to it, and then, well, mix it in with our style.”

Your record company, Noise, was bought up by Sanctuary, prior to the release of “Karma”. That must have meant at lot for Kamelot's part. “Epica” is a rather high-profiled release, at least this digi-pack which comes with a temporarily Kamelot-tattoo... (!) “Yeah, it's... The marketing campaign has been pretty huge this time. There are a lot of people who work for Kamelot to do well, there's no doubt about that, and we were fortunately one of the... In fact I think we were the only band on Noise they wanted to go for 100%, (except for Gamma Ray that is, but they were transferred to Sanctuary's own ‘bigger’ Metal-Is-label - FB) and so speaking, you can say we've come in a very fortunate position.”

Are you going to use Sascha & Miro as producers in the future as well, when you look upon what's been achieved on Kamelot's part by using this duo's unique abilities? “I don't know yet, we'll use them for “Epica” part 2 at least, but after that, I don't know... It might as well happen that we change producers when we feel for doing something different some time, that may happen.”But you don’t need a full-time-keyboardist as long as you have Miro, I guess? “No, as long as long as we can use him, I don't see any reason for anything else, no. He's that good so...”

Who will do the keyboards on the upcoming tour? Günter Werno from Vanden Plas again, or... “We don't know yet. We haven't come that far in the planning, yet, it could be anyone, really. We might try someone new too, but as I said, it's still too early to say.”It's been so popular to record cover-songs lately, but Kamelot haven’t done a single one, as far as I can tell..., is there any particular reason for this? “Well, I don't know... I guess we don't like to mess up other peoples stuff... Nah, we'll see about that. We might do something like that in the future, that'll be just for fun, then...”When you're having rehearsals, you have it rather cumbersome..., is it so that it's just you & Thom that, well, what shall I say, fly back and forth over the Atlantic all the time...? “Yeah, it's mostly done that way... But it's obviously I who has to fly the most, because the rest of the band is over there, so you can say that I spend a lot of time outside of Norway, but that's OK, I guess. It doesn't bother me that much anymore with a flight to the US, so...”

Now to a non-Kamelot-ish question; do you have any contact with the old Conception gang? “Yes, sure, we had a little social gathering here, just a week ago, so, it's brewing there still...we'll see what happens...”I've heard you also have some solo-stuff lying around... “Yeah, heh, that's also very much on the.., it's lying in the night table-drawer, it's on that stage, you can say... There's so much happening around Kamelot these days, so I just can't find time to do anything else, that's one thing, something else is that when you have a 5-month production behind you, and then been promoting... I alone have done 200 interviews so far, and that drains you a bit… You don't feel like doing another production straight away then. We'll just have to see when I'll find time for it…”Sure. Tell me, how would you compare “Epica” to “4th Legacy” and “Karma”? “It's a little more progressive, and quite a bit more theatrical, but besides that it's not that different. I think we found our sound on the “4th Legacy”, and “Epica” is done in the same way, sort of, just with a couple of variations.”On "Lost & Damned", you're using a sort of... eh.. French café-accordion or something... “Yes, there's a sort of accordion there, yes. It's a song that has a very tango-ish verse, so we wanted to use an instrument that traditionally would've been used to that type music, so we swiped through Argentina and found this guy who played this accordion then.”Ok. As usual, I must say, you're having a bunch of guest musicians... “Yup. Let's see... Luca Turilli does an guitar-solo on “Descent Of The Archangel”, besides that there is Ian Parry, who does the speaking part of the Town Crier in “Interlude IV”, then there's Mari, who sings Helena's part, and Andre Nyu... err.. what's his name, it's so impossible to pronounce.. (Neygenfind-FB)…, anyway, he played D-bass on “4th...” as well, he does it here too. Besides that, there's lots of different singers, strings, etc.”

Do you use a full string orchestra, or... “No, it's just a string quartet, which are laid upon. Much of the strings here are done synthetic, so we mix them together with real strings to make it sound as real as possible. It's a very demanding process, but it's quite important for us that it all sounds real.”

The way I've understood things, part 1 of “Epica” takes place on the inner plan, while part 2 will take place more on the exterior side, it will deal more with society and so on..., as you see I have not read Faust… “Yes, that's correct. Faust is divided into two parts, where the first takes place in the micro cosmos, and the second in the macro cosmos, on the inner and outer plan. The second part deals with the outer universe and the society as a whole. It's all very difficult stuff, but we're trying to simplify it a little bit for the record.”So when will you be heading for the road now? “There will be some touring in the spring, some in the summer and some in the autumn, I guess it will go on in one stretch, more or less...”

You'll be doing some festivals in the summer, then? “Yes, some here and some there... I know we'll be doing Japan in June, and we'll be playing in Norway, probably in Skien, on May 31. I guess that's worth mentioning.”

Interview with Thom

Thom seemed in a good mood when he called me, and after we assured each other that we both were doing fine the interview could begin.

First of all I must congratulate you with the new album, it sounds great once again.

Thank you very much, we are very happy with the result. So far the reviews have been great, and we are looking foreword to the fans get a hold on it.

Well it's January 13 so it is coming up soon.

Yeah can't wait.

How did you come up with the idea for the new concept album, and can you tell a little bit what it is about?

Yeah, the idea of doing a concept was first spoken about, I guess right around the time The Fourth Legacy came out. We wanted to do a concept album, and the idea of Epica really started just as conservations between myself and some of the other band members, and talking about life and the universe you know all of our places, the human beings on the planet.

And the singer, Khan was talked to me about the story of Faust from Goethe, how it had a little bit of similarity to this character searching for this knowledge about life. So we really wanted to kind of touch on that subject and that was what inspired the idea of Epica, which is about a character who really is searching for his place in the universe.

To me it seems like your most complex work to date, was it difficult to make?

I would say that from each record we are getting better and better in writing, it wasn't really anymore difficult. It was a little bit harder because you have to really stick to the story line, you know. So that is important that the music is supporting the whole concept to the end, so that makes it a bit more difficult.

It is your first concept album, is it something you are going to do in the future. Are you satisfied with the result?

It is possible, we'll see. There is a story already written for Epica II. If we will release it right away or not we are not sure, so will see what happens. We are going to wait and see what happens with the first release, and then we can think about the next one after that.

On the album Roy's voice seems to be very much in front. To me it is his best performance. Was it important for you that the album had such a high profile concerning the voice?

That was more the mixing done by Sascha, but even if Roy's voice wasn't more in the front, he still did a fantastic job and I think it is his best performance on record to date, yeah.

You achieved a great step forward with the release of The Fourth Legacy and also Karma. Are there any plans for a big tour this time?

Probably, we are working on the different countries and things like that. Right now all confirmed is the Sweden Rock Festival, at the moment we are talking to promoters about really putting together a great tour, and it is even going to be in the spring or in the fall off course. In the summer we are going to work on doing some festivals other than Sweden Rock.

There are many great festivals in Germany; Maybe you have some of those in planning?

Yeah that would be great and that is kind of were we are at right now, we are talking to different people and different festivals, and yeah I'm sure we have much more to add than what we already have.

If you look back to your back catalogue you got a lot of great songs to pick from. Songs from your earlier works, Heaven, Song Of Roland, Eternity and We Are Not Separate they are pretty fantastic. Are there any chances that you will include some of them on this new tour?

Yeah definable, we are going to play at least one song from the first three records, maybe two from each record. We Are Not Separate is one of them, I think we might do Fire Within. We are going through the old songs you know, and the hard part of it is that there is a different singer on those records, so we kind of leave those older songs up to Roy Khan to pick, because he has to sing them, and we want to make sure that he feels comfortable with singing the old songs.

You have worked with Günter Werno from Vanden Plas before; He also features on your live record. What is your relationship with him and are there plans for future cooperation?

We are really good friends, and he is really busy right now doing different things other than Vanden Plas. He is also working in the theatre, doing like musical productions.

He might do the Epica tour, we are not sure, we have to look at his schedule. There are some other keyboard players we are talking to, but Günter is a good friend. I can see us working with him in the future; he also played on the bonustrack for the limited edition of Epica that will be out. You know the first edition will be this limited edition, and there is a song on there called Snow, which is the bonustrack song that he played the keyboards on.

Kamelot has a quite unique style and many of your songs seem pretty complex. On Karma (like it sounds to me) there are different layers, keyboards and guitar working together. Is that a style that comes naturally to you as you compose it?

I think so yeah. We don't have this formula you know; I would say it is definable natural. It is sort of a sound and a style that we have come up with.

Could you define your own style?

The style of Kamelot?

Yeah you know there are so many forms: Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal... it is kind of a jungle, Do you have a favourite one ha ha

Ha ha I think for Kamelot we are a Melodic Power Metal band with progressive influences, and also new age influences, but I think on the surface and on the backbone of Kamelot it is Melodic Metal.

I was wondering about the name Kamelot, can you tell me a bit about how that came up?

Yeah sure, when the band was originally formed, basically myself and the drummer Richard Warner were very interested in Medieval tales and we went to all the Medieval fairs that were in the town every year, where the guys come and they set up this big Medieval city in the woods somewhere and there is gallantries and things like that. So we were very interested in this Medieval way of life, and we wanted the band to kind of represent that. For us Kamelot was the most famous tale. We had seen the movie Excalibur, that was really the idea of the band, yeah. I think that my Mom came up with the name cause we very talking about different names and we were talking to my Mom about it and she's like; why don't you call it Kamelot, ha ha.

You are at Noise Records/Sanctuary Records right now, is that a good place to be?

Yeah defininitely, the cool thing is that we have sort of risen to the top of their label, so the priority is definable on Kamelot right now, and we are very exited about that.

So the future looks really good for us, and if it is Noise it is one thing, and for another label you know ahh, but for the moment we are happy with Noise Records.

It is a great label with other great bands like Virgin Steele which is my favourite, could there be a tour with those guys, or is it just a thought in my mind?

Yeah there is always possibilities, you know it hasn't really come up, but I couldn't see why not. I guess the thing with Virgin Steele and Kamelot is that we are kind of in some countries at the same level, so we would have to do a co-headliner kind of thing.

Unique bands both, but I guess the same people would go to see the show.

Yeah I think that would be a good package for fans. There are all kinds of different scenarios that can come up, so we will see, I don't know when they are doing a new record; most bands are only on a tour when they have a new record out.

I noticed that the theme of spirituality is very important for Kamelot, can you tell a bit about that.

Well I think both myself and Khan really thinks a lot about the role of spirituality in our own life, also the role of religion in everybody's life. You kind of look around and see all these wars and things that come from organised religion, and you really have to start questioning what is that all about you know.

Isn't religion supposed to bring people together, not to divide people. I think that is an important theme on Epica, the most important thing is not really the religion you belong to, but the fact that you treat yourself and other people, and the environment and the world with respect, and that's the most you can really ask of anybody; to treat others like you want to be treated. I think that is an important message on Epica.

Ok. On the new tour are you going to new places, new countries?

Yeah I think we are probably going to Japan for the first time, hopefully Australia. We want to play in South America. We have to see what happens there and of course it would be great to come to Scandinavia. Other than the Sweden Rock Festival we are going to really try to organise at least four or five shows in Scandinavia, so yeah there are a lot of new worlds to visit, so we are really exited about 2003 and the Epica new year.

Last question. I was thinking about the band right now, you have had the same line-up for some time now, is it working well with the guys in the band right now?

Yeah yeah everybody are really good friends and we all have a good time on tour, a good time recording. So it is a good feeling. If there was ever any kind of changes it would be more because one person or another couldn't for fill the commitments that it takes to be a successful band you know. But in general we are all really good friends and that is a cool thing.

Well I want to thank you for the interview and wish you all the best of luck in the future.

Yeah my pleasure and hope to see you guys soon. Ok Tommy take care.

You too. Bye

Roy and Thom's interview

Artist: Kamelot: Roy Khan & Tom Youngblood

Label: SPV Records

Interviewer: Ken Pierce (copyright 2005) for PiercingMetal.com

Interview Date: 11/21/2005

The Melodic Metal powerhouse Kamelot was finally going to be playing in New York City to support the release “The Black Halo”. Thanks to the folks at SPV Records I was able to sit down with lead singer Roy Khan for a few minutes before he was set to perform. I have to say that backstage interviews are both fun and stressful at the same time. Remember you are making the musician focus on something else when they are often trying to get into the performance head. Based on this I tried to keep the questions brief and topical as much as possible. Below is our transcribed conversation.

PiercingMetal: - Roy welcome to New York, how long has it been since we have seen you here in terms of shows (at the moment I was unaware this was the first time).

Khan - Oh I’ve never played in New York before.

PiercingMetal: - Well that makes sense for while I enjoy the music I wondered why I could not recall the Kamelot name after all the shows I have been attending. So let’s blast through some questions for the readers. The new album "The Black Halo" is one of the bands most polished and adventurous albums yet-how has the fan & critic reaction been to it so far?

Khan - It’s been outrageous – I mean really, really good and I don’t think I’ve seen one review that is like bad at all. Critical response has been really good and the fans have been praising it. I mean it that it has just been a blast. I’m kind of speechless when it comes to that part of it. I can just say its been really good.

PiercingMetal: - Can you talk a little bit about the story behind the lyrics? "The Black Halo" is a pretty intense production overall with lots of guest singers-can you talk a little about how the band put this all together?

Khan - Well everything started when I got this really fat book called “Faust” which is written by a German writer named Goethe. We started this in like 2002 I think. It was an idea I had to do a concept album but we didn’t really want to go ahead and do a concept album before we really had a concept. Meaning we just didn’t want to “just do it” because a lot of bands are doing concept albums these days and we wanted to have something that we felt was worth doing and something that we felt was us. Then all of a sudden one day I just pulled this book out. It was actually my girlfriends and I started looking through it and saw it had some clearly separated parts and I started reading it. Then I read about it and it just seemed to fit very well with what we are and the themes that we had dealt with in the past. We were talking about a two part concept just sort of to mirror things or yin and yang because we have always been very concerned with opposites. Black and white, left and right, up and down whatever you know and this book is that kind of a story. The first half is written at the beginning of his life and the second half is written at the end of his life. It took about 50 years to write and to be honest I don’t totally get it because it is extremely complicated and there is a limit of how much you can get down in a 60 minute CD. What we did is we sort of used the same framework and built our own life story and used little fragments from our own life into the story. It seems like people like it so that’s good.

PiercingMetal: - Speaking of light and dark what was it like working with Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir for the songs "March of Mephisto".

Khan - (laughs) It was really cool to do.

PiercingMetal: - How about Simone Simons from Epica.

Khan - Both of the guest artists were great to have for this as we are dealing with opposites again. We have Simone who is very much like Light and beautiful with her voice and her whole charisma and character. She fits very well for the character that she is portraying in “The Haunting” while of course Shagrath is supposed to be Mephisto or the Devil’s true face and he fits that character perfectly.

PiercingMetal: - Do you think we shall see any Roy Khan contributions on Dimmu Borgir or Epica as a result of this? (at the time of the interview I had not known that Khan performed on the Epica album “Consign To Oblivion”)

Khan - Actually we are talking about some stuff but it’s not like a tradeoff thing. I think it is much more natural for us to use him on The Black Halo. I don’t see why we would have used a Black Metal singer for any other album really. That song demanded somebody like that and I think he was perfect for it. It’s not like we had a collaboration going.

PiercingMetal: - So the album is once again produced by Sascha Paeth who’s worked with Rhapsody and Angra among others. Do you think that would be the perfect producer for the Kamelot sound? What does he bring to the table for you guys?

Khan - Well Sascha has been perfect until now and I don’t see any reason why we should change that team. It’s a team that works very well and we have become really good friend as well. It’s not only about work and business but it’s also about Friendship and having a good time. I actually think that this shines through when you have the final or finished product. I think the vibe that was going through the production is there. With that said it doesn’t mean that we are not going to use anyone else ever because we might want to try somebody else or do something different just for the sake of doing something different. Each producer brings their own sound and its something we might want to try sometime.

PiercingMetal: - What’s the feeling of playing this kind of music for the US audience against playing in the European Countries?

Khan - You know what it seems to me is that people like it everywhere. Fans have been supportive all over the world and I am not saying on one specific market. There has been a good reception to it all around and with this last record “The Black Halo” we seem to have more doors opened up for us in the US. But you know I don’t really see the humungous difference it seems that people who like Kamelot like Kamelot.

PiercingMetal: - Speaking on that, the people who like Kamelot will support the band no matter what and in a headlining show you are essentially "preaching to the choir" and face playing for people who already know about the band. If you had to tour as support for someone else who is the perfect band and the perfect tour for Kamelot to support to reach an even wider crowd.

Khan - We just want to reach out to as many people as possible and there are tons of bands out there that would be perfect. We’ve been touring with other bands that have been totally different style wise from what we are doing and that has worked and there is also the chance to work with people who have the same sort of style. Mainly I will say that we want to aim to getting new ground covered and that’s part of the reason we chose to work with both Shagrath and Simone. These people are in bands that have totally different audiences.

PiercingMetal: - I have another quick one or two for you. I know its hard to get the singer to talk a lot right before the show and this is why I am trying to be real brief and to the point here.

Khan - It’s ok but when I am sick….

PiercingMetal: - If you’re sick I am not doing interviews with you in a small room (laughs) Ok, so at ProgPower you did the Conception reunion go at ProgPower this year? So how was that and what was it like to be part of the band again.

Khan - It was a blast I mean we are all good friends and they are excellent musicians. Since its such a friendship kind of thing it was great being back up there with the guys. We hang out once in awhile and once we had even rented a house for like 2 years and it was cool. Its not like when people ask me are we going to do another album and blah blah blah but stuff like that would not make any sense for me right now.

PiercingMetal: - Given that thought, what would be next for Kamelot and I mean beyond “The Black Halo” which I realize is still new. What’s the next vision you are having?

Khan - I don’t know – a lot of people are expecting more you know. More choirs and more concepts, more complexity. I don’t know as I think maybe we have reached a peak as far as that goes. Who knows as we might want to go more simple. I really have absolutely no idea because we have been working on “The Black Halo” since January of last year and we’re still working it since it is still selling so good. As a result we have not really had the time to sit down and discuss the framework of the next production.

PiercingMetal: - Who inspires Roy Khan?

Khan - Nowadays nobody (laughs) but that is because I cant really say that I listen to a lot of music these days. It’s been awhile since I have bought a CD. When I buy a CD it’s because I want to check out the production or check out the DVD or stuff like that. It’s been a really long time since someone else actually inspired me. I like silence sometimes and also listening to the stuff that my Parents used to listen to like Pink Floyd and Abba or Simon & Garfunkel. As kids you don’t realize it but over time you realize that they have influenced you more than you may have thought. Those came to be my main influences but I just didn’t see it. Of course I like Geoff Tate & Queensryche and some other great Metal bands.

PiercingMetal: - Do you think we shall see this on a live album? Or perhaps a live DVD?

Khan - We’re talking about doing a live DVD in Norway in February and we have been working on that idea for about a year. We talked about doing it in Brazil, in Canada and in Holland but we came to the conclusion that we have to either do it in Florida or in Norway so we can have 100% control over it. The whole stage set and props and for example when we tried to plan this in Brazil the communication was not good. A deal is definitely not a deal down there if you make arrangement to have one thing and when you get there it is something different.

PiercingMetal: - OK I will let you now take your next interview but please kick some ass tonight. I am really looking forward to it and the crowd is building up outside for you. Any surprises you want to share?

Khan - No, there is no real surprise, the set list is pretty much the same. We are playing three songs that we have never done before and we are also trying to do most of the songs that will be on the DVD so that is probably not going to change too much.

Khan and the guys went on to perform a kick ass set that while melodic in its nature was still quite powerful in its level of Metal delivery. After the show I somehow found myself talking to some people and as a result ended up chatting with guitar wizard Tom Youngblood. Since the recorder was with me I asked him if he wanted to share some brief thoughts with me and he was glad to. Here is the very spontaneous and unplanned discussion.

PiercingMetal: - We are now backstage with Tom Youngblood, lead guitarist of Kamelot. Tom what did you think of Kamelot’s first ever performance in New York City?

Youngblood - : It was fucking killer man we had a great time. The fan response totally blew me away and they were singing songs that we haven’t even heard people in Europe singing. So definitely an eye-opener for us and a reason to come back. It might have been the first show in New York but it is certainly not going to be our last.

PiercingMetal: - How do you find the response overall for “The Black Halo” against that of some of the other Kamelot releases.

Youngblood - The response has been great and the reviews really good. The sales in America has doubled, tripled from the last record so it’s good to see that our market in America is growing. So we are excited about the future because the record continues to sell really good every week and that makes us look forward to the next record coming out to some big acceptance.

PiercingMetal: - Regarding US Power Metal vs. Europe’s brand of the genre like Sonata Arctica, Nightwish and EdGuy where would you think that Kamelot fits in to the larger picture.

Youngblood - I don’t really think about that and we do what we do musically. What’s important for me is that we sound like Kamelot and not like someone else. I would say that this is the most important thing and we’re not trying to say that we are a Power Metal band, or Melodic, or Progressive. We just do what we do and we have all different types of elements in our music. So the most important thing for me as an artist is having a unique sound and I like to think that we have achieved that with the last few records.

PiercingMetal: - Looking back on that statement what does Tom Youngblood find as influential and allowing you to be inspired and create the Kamelot music.

Youngblood - Well in terms of the songs and the subject matter its always personal things that come into play but musically I’m always looking for new kind of influences. I mean I think on the last couple of records there has been some Arabian and Celtic influences, some Middle Eastern stuff and I’ve been listening to a lot of different music now that I think is going to be in touch with the next record. It’s hard to say but I am always looking for new influences outside of the Metal kind of backbone. I think that’s important to not repeat ourselves or sound like other bands.

PiercingMetal: - Is the next record already being theorized and discussed a little even though “The Black Halo” is currently being toured.

Youngblood - Yes definitely, I have already got a couple of ideas for the album title and some of its content. It’s definitely going to be a darker record than “The Black Halo” was. Another step towards that direction and we’re excited. We have a lot of ideas and we’re just getting started.

PiercingMetal: - I asked Khan this before the show and now I will ask you the same thing. How did you like working with Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir and Simone Simons from Epica?

Youngblood - It was great we did and we did the video for “March Of Mephisto” in Sweden and Shagrath came in to do that with us and he is a really cool guy. Simone happened to be in the studio at the same time as we were and we flew into Sweden to do the video for “The Haunting”. They’re all very humble but their also very professional and its nice to work with those kind of people.

PiercingMetal: - To close this out, Khan had mentioned briefly that there was talk of a DVD coming out from this tour.

Youngblood - Definitely and we are hoping to shoot the Norway show in February in Oslo. That’s the idea right now, Patrick who did the two videos is putting together the whole budget for the shoot and we’re excited.

PiercingMetal: - Any last thoughts for fans of Kamelot and Power Metal.

Youngblood - Thanks for your support, we had a kick ass night tonight and we look forward to coming back

We then toasted the night over a few beers and then the band was on their way into the night to their next destination. Reviews of the show with photos as well as “The Black Halo” album review can be found elsewhere on the site. The CD will blow you away and the idea of a live DVD is very exciting.

Interview with Thom

Kamelot - April 2005

Contributed by Silvia Deurwaarder

Tuesday, 24 May 2005

Interview with:

Thomas Youngblood

Kamelot is on the road to promote their new record ‘The Black Halo’. The American guys are busy to win new fans and with part II of the concept album with which they really impressed a lot of people. When the part I; ‘Epica’ was released the band couldn’t play their gigs in the Netherlands, so many fans had to wait for some years to see them. The evening in Zoetemeer was a great show and the fans were satisfied. When the whole tour goes this well Kamelot will grow even more. They have been at the top of the power metal scene for ages. Before their show songwriter and guitarist Thomas Youngblood had time to update us about the new record.

Of course we have to talk about the new record. The media and the fans are very positive, so first of all I wanted to know if Thomas had any expectations when the album was released. “We always hope the best, but we never expect anything. We just do an album and hope that the hard work we put into it is appreciated. Of course we want the best with years and fans who love the album, but we don’t feel too bad about it when someone doesn’t like it for example. We are very pleased with the results.”

With ‘Epica’ the band showed that it pushed the music to a higher level. It seems with this record that the band has grown a lot in those years. Thomas agrees and explains why: “Definitely, I mean with each album we are able to take another step. That’s important for any band to get more out of it; with recording, what you do, the time you put into it and writing. Of course it is rewarding to be able to have the concerts and more people every year. It’s really nice because our fan base is growing quit a bit now and that’s a cool thing, because I think everybody gets a bit of the spirit we tried to put into the album; a sort of spiritual thing that everybody tries to relate to.”

The first part of the concept album was the battle between good and evil, now the band used that main theme again: “The second part is more the continuation and the final of the story where the main character, Ariel, dies. It’s sort of a romantic tragedy in a sense, but the darker part of the whole story is more relevant in ‘The Black Halo’. We are happy that both records, although they are one part, both are very different from each other."

A concept album is a lot of work and I didn’t expect the other part of the concept album this soon. Thomas tells me that the band talked about to do ‘The Black Halo’ later, but they had the idea for the story: “We wanted to put it aside, so we always had something, but it’s important to do it now. I am glad we did it, because it was very successful. So the next record will be a normal album, not a concept. Of course it will have general themes, musically and lyrically that we always use, but not a part of a story. All the songs have their own sort of stories. “

The band is a bit exhausted due to the format of a concept album, because it’s more work: “Especially lyrically, but also with the music you want to support that. In a way when we did the concept album we tried to make a movie: special guests who played a part in the movie. So it’s more difficult, because more people get involved. Also you have to stay within the frame. With a normal album there is no frame: you can do a song about religion or history, they don’t need a red line. I really look forward to that, because a concept album takes a lot of effort.”

When you listen to both albums the songs surprised me, because it doesn’t sound like there was no motivation anymore. Thomas, sitting next to me on the couch in the backstage office, starts to smile: “Thank you. We really try to push ourselves to develop and come up with new techniques and textures. So we add new elements with each album, challenge ourselves; it’s important for us to keep it interesting. When we would do the same sort of songs on every record we would run out of motivation, ideas and inspiration. So for us to grow we have to do those things each record. I think we have the kind of fans who appreciate that."

It’s not an easy process, is it?“It is a balance. You have to understand that old fans expect something and there are fans who never heard us, you have to add new elements. We all like different types of music, so it always fun to inject those elements from outside heavy metal.”

The last record turned out to be a bit more progressive or not?“Well it’s a little bit of everything: more melodic, more progressive, more basic in other songs like; ‘The Haunting’, for example, is the most basic we ever done, but ‘The Black Halo’ is the most progressive song we ever done. To put it on a higher level you can say.”

And that all went very natural?“Definitely! We weren’t going for this progressive thing at all, but in the end we listened to it and said: ‘Ok I can see what people think, maybe it’s more progressive. But it never was the intention when we did the writing. It just happened a bit.”

The openings song ‘March of Mephisto’ is very heavy, with aggressive grunts. The band wanted to do things differently: “We didn’t want to do it like typical melodic metal bands always do: the double bass. We wanted to challenge the press and the fans to accept the song; a bit slower, a bit more melodic. For me it’s the coolest song live: everybody banging their heads and the groove is hypnotic.”

Writing process“We have two writers in the band so that makes it simpler, in terms of not having a lot of people who want to add or change things. I think that is one of the reasons that we’re able to make an album like this: it doesn’t take two years to do it. There are not a lot of changes in that way. Between me and Khan (the singer – SD), we always change things together and then with the producer who can change things before we record the album."

“When I compare the albums today with the first two or three it’s totally different level of quality of writing songs: I kind of understand structure and musical theory. When you can combine that, a creative thing, with different music elements that’s a growing process.”

“When we write a song we build it up: start with a main theme or a melody and then we build everything around that and it grows. We know we have a couple of verses or choirs and need to find a verse. When you have choirs first it’s a sort of dictates how the other part going to be ‘cause there has to be a certain key, atmosphere, or a riff. Sometimes the music sets the tone for the lyrics. Like in ‘Abanned’ the music was written for it but the lyrics were done at last with the melancholic piano parts. So with that structure the lyrics had to be very melancholic. Khan writes all the lyrics himself and I think that’s important as a singer; feel those emotions in the lyrics. Sometimes I help him out with some lines, but I think writing lyrics is one of his strongest points”.

The band has a lot of diversity, so that’s why I asked Thomas to tell me what the ‘trademarks’ of the band are. He needed no time to think about that: “Every band tries to find the typical Halloween sound and one thing that sets us apart is Khan’s voice and the musical structure. There is always a melodic signature. Of course with bands the identity comes first with the vocals. You see that with bands I’ve grown up with: Queenriche and Iron Maiden have that.”

American Scene During the conversation Thomas is very enthusiastic about the audience in Europe, but he is not very interested in his home country: “The American scene is not much to talk about. It’s growing: coming back a little bit, but still it’s not to the point it is in Europe. Because we come from there it’s not the main thing we focus on, not at all. Europe and Japan are doing very well. Next week we go to Japan for a second headliner tour. We want to go where we have a fan base. That’s most important and being big in the US is not a goal of us. When it happens that would be cool. The fans in Europe have always been our base, so we never loose sight of that loyalty. We hope that we can do a tour with this album in the US. We talked with Timo (former of Kotipelto and front man from Stratovarius – SD) and maybe we can go out with Stratovarius when they are going on tour. We have some opportunities to look at and see what happens.”

Dreams“I try to take things day by day and appreciate things. Of course you dream about winning a Grammy or selling a million records, but we try to do the best we can, live and in the studio, and hope that the record company does their job. The rest is sort of up to faith. We are really happy with the progress of the band, the way things are going on this tour and it was a good package.”

Besides the dreams the guitar player still has a goal:”The goal has always been to embrace our fan base and sell more records, but we never had a specific goal: that’s not something you achieve by planning. It is just some of those things what just happen by working.”

Isn’t it hard sometimes to find the energy to play so many shows in a short time? “Not really, because the tour is not that long and we had a day off here and there to reload the batteries. Tonight it is the last show with Epica, so that is another level of motivation. Guys are going to play tricks with each other. I heard there will be 600 people so that’s enough motivation to play the best show we can. Sometimes you have to lay back a bit, when you know that you are getting tired, but we only had to do that once in this tour."

"The hard part is always being away from home. Basically we don’t do anything until we go on stage for one hour and a half. Most people have to work more than 8 hours a day: so we are very fortunate. There are people who can’t relate, like friends I grown up with, they don’t understand your job. One day you are in Italy and the next day in Holland. There are downsides like sleeping in the tour bus, but in general it’s nice when you not doing it all the time. You have to find a balance.”

What do you guys have in common?

Thomas: “Good question.”Glenn (guitars): “We’ve known each other for more than 10 years."Thomas: “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”Glenn: “We try to avoid conflicts. When it comes to the music; if there is more power live than on the CD, the chemistry was great. We have been together for such a long time.”Thomas: “We are friends first and then colleagues. I think you also can see it on stage: we play the same songs as on the record but the dynamics are totally different than anything you put on a record. When you do a record the basis is there, but live you see it when the drummer hits harder. We try to have fun on stage and in the end of the night it’s totally stressed”.

Glenn came in and helped Thomas with the answer, but now he has to hurry because he wants a shower. Thomas explains to me that they don’t think about how a song sounds live when they start to compose new material. “You think about it when you are done with the song. Like ‘March of Mephisto’ it’s a strong song live”. It is the first time that the band made a video and the guitar player is very exited about it: “The other record company didn’t believe in making videos and we did. That is one of the reasons that we left. ‘The Haunting’ is no.2 on The Rocks and yesterday we were on MBC in Germany and that definitely helps. It’s a different fan base: not typical heavy metal. I am excited because I really like the videos and I hope it came out great!”

Then he looks on his watch and he has no more time left, but he want to say one last thing about the future: “I expect that in the future we still grown with every record. A few more songs like ‘March of Mephisto’ or ‘The Haunting’ and a bit more double bass and more power. Well we will see. For sure things are going up! I see no reason why that would change. I don’t want to disappoint the fans."

With those positive words he says goodbye to warm-up for the show.

We want to thank Thomas Youngblood and Kamelot, the crew and Dirk.

Interview with Roy

This interview with Roy Khan of Kamelot was done by phone by Alexa Kasparek on February 17th, 2005.

Just coming up with their Seventh studio album, Kamelot's vocalist Roy Khan took some minutes to talk about their latest output, even though he hardly had time due to a tight schedule. Nevertheless he offers us some interesting insights to the world of Goethe's Faust, Kamelot's new masterpiece The Black Halo and also to its predecessor Epica.

Hi, how are you? Fine, thanx! What about you?

I'm pretty okay… your new album is about to be released next month here in Europe – some days ago I listened to it for the first time and it's great! Really?! That's fine!

How are the other reactions so far? Absolutely fantastic, we get highest rankings everywhere. For the first time, I think there are so few things that I feel which could have been better in a way, so I can say this is my best album today, whatever that means coming from one of the writers, as a member of the band!

So you are really proud of it! Absolutely!

Comparing The Black Halo to Epica – what are the main differences? I'd say the production is more crisp and heavy, the overall atmosphere is darker, the structure of the album is slightly different compared to how we normally open an album – this album unfolds with a slightly strange mid-tempoish, yet heavy song, thinking of March Of Mephisto, of course, which shows off with one of our most prominent guest artists right on the first track, so it is a bit of an overload in a way, was far as that goes. Maybe some of the songs have a slightly unusual structure, maybe a little bit more progressive even than the previous one, but I feel that we keep the tight, compact, catchy style without a cheesy sound. Well, let's just hope that our fans manage to keep up with this.

The concept of the album is to continue the idea of Goethe's Faust story from Epica: Could you please explain the plot? The concept of the album is to continue the idea of Goethe's Faust story from Epica: Could you please explain the plot? Yes. If Epica was based on the first part of Faust, I have to say that the second part is even more loosely based on the second part. This one is such a wild mixture of symbols and metaphors, different kinds of religion, mythology and politics before, after and at the time of Goethe that there is not really a very clear red line within the story… There is a reason why this second part of Faust has never been staged, I mean there has never been a theatre play or anything and the reason is that it's extremely hard to set it up as a play. I can't say that we used too much of the story but we used the same techniques as Goethe used in making the two parts. Part one and part two sort of mirror each other and also invert each other like the second part is like an inversion of the first part and for the listener. He who really wants to go deep to analyze will find a lot of similarities between The Black Halo and Epica; little things that are here and there for example double tempo, half tempo, even scores that are just upside down so of course nobody will hear that, but at least that makes the process of making the music a little bit more amusing for me and Tom, you know, hehe… And in the story Ariel, our main character, is still struggling with these forces that live within him; Mephisto for representing the evil; and Helena – now dead – as the good force. And he's still searching and travelling geographically what we tried to portrait musically. Faust is presented as a tragedy in the sense that he never manages to fulfil or accept love in his life, but at least he understands that at the end of his life some of the moves he made were not the best. And in that sense it has a slightly positive touch, too. Well, we've been working on this production now for 7 months and there's just so much to say and I just have to warn you - I just say this because based on the experience the last days were I've been talking and talking and in the end the journalists were just halfway with their questions…

Hehe, no Problem! Did you plan to come up with a second part of this concept when you created Epica? Yeah, it's been planned out to be a two part concept in the beginning. I mean it all started with me picking up this Faust book and this idea of dividing the concept in two to refer to this Yin Young kind of thinking with black and white and good and evil which is also a very present in our lyrics in general - it has always been a big part in them and it just was the perfect thing to do - to divide it up in two.

What does the Faust story mean to you personally – if I may ask? The themes that Goethe deals with are universal things that we all can relate to somehow one way or the other. I have to say that the second part of Faust is so complex and so confusing that I'm not even sure that I understand half of it and to think that we could manage to capture everything he wanted to say in this 60minute CD would be pathetic - even with these big universal questions that everybody has to encounter somehow one way or the other in their lives if not all through their lives. I think a lot of people really think about these things all their lives: where do we come from, the universe, eternity, the meaning of live, love and death…

How does the cover artwork fit in the concept? The cover artwork is the reference to Helena, who died in the first part, and in portraying her lying in the river but with her eyes open as a symbol of being a still visibly alive force and good spirit within Ariel, or main character.

I noticed that your other cover artworks are mainly purple, but this one is the first that is quite red… Yeah, we have been talking about that, and you know, hehehehe… It was almost like we in a jokey way said: "Do we really dare to leave out the purple totally?" but I'm really happy with everything on this album and it really looks sweet. You probably have the promo version, right? I finally got the digipak limited edition today and it's really really sweet and we're extremely happy with everything – the music, the packaging and obviously also the cover.

Another strange question, but I'm not sure if you're the right person to answer this one: why do you spell Kamelot with a K instead of a C? Originally that was done both to make it stand out and because I think Tom had this amulet with a K in it which actually the logo is partially based on. Where this amulet was from I don't know but I think that was the case… and of course obviously the K instead of the C makes it more unique as a search word on the internet.

There are famous guest-musicians on The Black Halo and at least one of them is quite unusual for a melodic metal album – how did you get in contact with all of them? To take Jens first: Jens was part of this Aina project with Sascha Paeth, Miro and Cinzia Rizzo and… I think originally we were talking about a violin solo on March Of Mephisto, because the violin in many cultures is looked upon as the devil's instrument, but then we thought about Jens, who is the probably most virtuoso and famous keyboard player in the genre and a fantastic musician, so we thought maybe we could do a keyboard solo which has a violin sort of approach and he did that task with such brilliance that I'm really happy that we asked him. It's also a cool thing for me that his father, Jan Johansson, had a record out in the beginning of the 70ies that I've been listening to my whole life and it's a really cool point for me that his son now is on this record. Of course his father died before I was born, but my mother had this record and it's been a part of my life. Then there is Simone Simons from Epica: she's playing the part of Margarete on The Haunting, and that started actually with Epica wanting me to do a piece on their album, but I was hesitating because at that time we were in the middle of the preparations for The Black Halo and I didn't want to spend time on anything else right then. But then we came down to Germany and Epica happened to be in the studio when we started our production and we needed a girl to do the part of Margarete so it just was convenient and practical, and Simone as an artist and also her voice fitted perfectly to this character that we wanted to portrait in our story. And then of course there is Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir, and that was a pretty obvious one. We wanted somebody to portrait someone as the true face of evil, the true face of Mephisto and what can be better than the lead singer of the number one black metal act on the planet right now? And the fact that he lives 10 minutes from me in Norway is of course also a point!

One of the songs is sung in Italian – why did you decide to do this and what do the lyrics mean? The lyrics are based on a little poem that I wrote. The title actually has five parts and it originally was meant to be in English, but it just didn't feel right with this kind of music. We thought that it was asking for a language that was a bit more exotic - if Italian can be considered as being exotic, but at least it's different to English. And we had Cinzia Rizzo who has been working with us before - she is Italian by the way - to translate at least some parts of my poem and we're just extremely happy with how that came out, it sounds very different and the title, just to take that, means "A very silent murder".

You also shot videos for two songs; those are your first clips, right? Yes, we chose March Of Mephisto and The Haunting and Simone and Shagrath are participating in each their video. Those are the first clips we made with Kamelot and that was a complete blast, really a great experience and we were absolutely happy with the choice of the director, Patrick Ullaeus.

So is there anything left you'd like our readers to know? A last thing maybe will be that I really hope that… we're a band that always tries to develop and have a certain progress from album to album and I just hope that our fans you know follow us in that development and join us on our musical journey!

So thanx very much for the interview and see you on tour!

Roy Khan

Artist: Kamelot: Roy Khan (Vocals)

In my introductory comments for the interview with guitarist Kamelot’s guitarist Thomas Youngblood, I mentioned how singer Roy Khan was supposed to join us. Unfortunately he was not at the venue until shortly before their set and one cannot expect the singer of the group to be able to sit and chit chat with that little time available before they hit the stage. We decided to do this right after the show and after Khan and company destroyed the sold-out room with an evening of killer music we found a secluded spot in the venues back halls to sit down and talk about the new album, the DVD as well as the night’s performance. The show was great and I was happy that Khan still wanted to talk with so little rest after walking offstage. I left the line of questioning exactly the same as I had used to interview Thomas so please read on for our full conversation.

PiercingMetal: It seems that we need to start this one off a little differently since we didn’t talk before and are now catching you just some twenty minutes after performing to a sold out show in NYC. What are your immediate thoughts on the show you just walked off the stage from?

Khan: It’s great, it really, really is. It’s been very special to us since the first time we played here because it’s New York and B.B. King’s is a legendary club and we always have a really good time here. There’s a little bit more people every time and it’s just nice to see that we are headed in the right direction.

PiercingMetal: Now I know you hit NY up in Poughkeepsie, at the Chance, are there any highlights from that show?

Khan: Uhm, that was a great show too, highlights it was just a good show but had its own moments. As each show ends you realize that. It’s different each time.

PiercingMetal: It’s not New York….even though it is New York, it is not THIS New York.

Khan: No, not at all.

PiercingMetal: As you know I interviewed Tom before the show so we only could assume how the night would be, but later in the evening as I watched and stood off to the side stage as you were gearing up the crowd for the final numbers you could literally feel the energy in the crowd. What does that feel like to you up on the stage?

Khan: I like that very much, especially the first time and today, it was very intense.

PiercingMetal: So the first time that we met the band was touring for “The Black Halo” , an album that really became a fast favorite in the Melodic Power Metal fan base. Now that you can look back on its release and the tour that supported it, I wonder if you ever thought it would receive the acclaim and be the Kamelot “band defining statement that it ended up becoming?

Khan: With “The Black Halo” we pretty much felt that we really did it this time and I have to say that. We were also extremely confident when the album was about to be released. It’s not like we cared that much really about what everybody else is going to think. Of course it’s a great, great bonus the fans like it but its all about keeping the whole thing interesting to ourselves. As long as we manage to do that I know that we are going to be able to do another one and that is such a great, great passion in my life. To write songs and to sing them and as long as this whole thing remains interesting to ourselves I know that we will continue on doing this. I wouldn’t do a lot of albums were I felt that we had to compromise the band and I wouldn’t want to let the record company start working around in the song-writing and stuff like that or tell us what to look or sound like. Hey wait, what was the question again (heartily laughs)….

PiercingMetal: I think you got to the point of it, and there is no right or wrong about your view of that stuff. I guess what I am leading into now is another fact about “The Black Halo” album again. Would it be safe to say that “The Black Halo” continues to amaze you in terms of the bands catalog insofar as reach and the attention that it still receives?

PiercingMetal: We’ll get to all of these as we go along. I’m just leading you into it a little bit.

Khan: Ok, so yes, absolutely – it is even an album that I still play a lot actually. There are of course certain songs that I like to play on the other albums, but when I am just sitting down home in Norway, this album is something I just dig. Even though I have heard it quite a few times and am probably one of the people who heard it the most I am still enjoying it.

PiercingMetal: So after “The Black Halo”, the band decides to record and film the performance in Oslo, and the end result was one of the more popular DVD and live CD’s top be released that year and we mean of course “One Cold Winters Night”. Was it always the plan to deliver this piece when you toured for “The Black Halo” or was it one of those battlefield decisions that you made based on how much good the album was getting you.

Khan: This was actually the label’s idea about whether or not we wanted to do a DVD. So we said yeah sure, but we need a good budget so this way if we are going to do something we are going to do it right. So we were able to negotiate a good budget and go ahead, but that DVD kind of exceeded our expectations I have to say that. Also because we never did a DVD before so we really didn’t know what to expect.

PiercingMetal: So it’s safe to say that you don’t regret the decision to do it. Let me jump ahead a little here and ask you about this. As a lead singer, I watch you and I see that you are a very dramatic vocalist. You are along the lines of a Geoff Tate in Queensryche in regards to the level of drama, intensity and mood that you portray onstage. You almost seem like an actor at times when you are singing. I wonder does this come naturally to you.

Khan: Yeah it’s actually way more natural than you think it is. I don’t really think about what I am doing onstage and its not like I am rehearsing moves and such, I just go along with the music and let it do the work but of course sometimes I will do something really awkward but I really just try to shut my brain off . When I start thinking, that’s when I really start fucking up.

PiercingMetal: Let’s move on to the new now, looking back on when we first talked, you mentioned to me that a lot of the material that you did on “The Black Halo” came from the reading you were doing in the book Faust. So what inspired Khan to come up with the tales that we find on “Ghost Opera” – let’s talk a little about the stories on this one.

Khan: Well, right off “Ghost Opera” is not a concept record as opposed to “Epica” and “The Black Halo”, so we have ten songs that have significantly different lyrics. For the first time, no that’s not correct since its not the first time that we did a regular studio album, but for the first time since like on “Fourth Legacy” or “Karma” but we weren’t as conscious about that back then. This time around we sat down and just did the music and didn’t have to worry about the lyrics first and instead let the music direct and inspire the lyrics. Just the fact that we didn’t have to worry about the words before we did the music was very refreshing and I think this led us to write slightly differently than we have done over the last five years.

PiercingMetal: Now “Ghost Opera” as your newest record has been receiving a lot of rave reviews and is truly a powerful piece of Metal music that is quite strong on the melody. My question is was it difficult to get this one put together based on having “The Black Halo” before it. What I am getting at here is did you feel that the end result that “The Black Halo” achieved for Kamelot, that it raised the bar higher for the creative process.

Khan: Absolutely and that’s good. This is too, man these wings are good (Khan was finally eating a plate of them after the show and decided to announce it).

PiercingMetal: So are you living here now in the US?

Khan: No, I am still in Norway.

PiercingMetal: I thought you would have moved to New York by now (ha-ha).

Khan: I’ll say that if I was to move to the US I would definitely prefer here than to Florida. So back to the question, and yes, absolutely is the answer. I’m not going to lie about it, because its done a lot for us and gave us the chance to do things we had never done like the DVD and all. We don’t actually look back however when it comes to us writing new material and this is the same thing this time around. I think actually it was quite quick and probably the most effective song-writing session that we have ever had. We felt right away that this was going to be a good album and I don’t know what it is about it besides that me and Tom are a very good combination. There’s a special feel with all the guitars and drums and for me with the harmony and lyrics – it just works.

PiercingMetal: The great thing about “Ghost Opera” is that as you listen to it you are not going to find “The Black Halo” Part 2 because it's instead a new and exciting piece of music in the chapter of Kamelot's own Metal book. Did you feel when you listened to the final mix that lightning had struck twice for the band and that another winner had been unleashed?

Khan: Absolutely, and despite this there is always going to be people who have something to say, and we found this even on “The Black Halo” , where people are like “oh this is too different from what you did in the past”. I can only assume that everyone who hears us wants it to sound like the band they first heard when they first discovered it. Now along this line, I would love for Queensryche to sound like they did on “Rage For Order” although I kind of think that “Operation: Mindcrime” is a better album, but it was just at this time in my life that the album was very special to me. I’ve always wanted them to do more stuff like they did on “Rage For Order”.

PiercingMetal: This aspect makes me come up with a question as well. Given Kamelot’s status as a Power Metal band, whether you like the term or not because in the larger sense you are a Power Metal group to most people. What is your own “Rage For Order” and your “Operation: Mindcrime”.

Khan: For Kamelot? Wow, I wouldn’t be the right person to ask, that’s up to the listener.

PiercingMetal: So you are leaving it up to the world to determine this one ok, fair enough. Moving on and this is a two-part question. What are your favorite songs on the new release and which ones are the most fun to play live.

Khan: That’s really, really hard to tell but I love “Love You To Death”. It’s just a song that I really, really like. “Ghost Opera” kills……dude, I really like all those new songs that we played. I love them and I guess its just……well, we’ve gotten to a point where we can choose only songs that we absolutely like. Of course at the ending of a live set, we have “Ghost Opera”, “Karma”, Love You To Death” and “March Of Mephisto” and there is a reason that we placed them at the end. It doesn’t mean that I don’t love singing the other songs but I guess that those last songs are the right combination of what we like and what we know gets the people going and that together makes them be in that position.

PiercingMetal: Right now we are looking at Kamelot appearing to full rooms and sold out houses and this is a great thing. But the curiosity that I have is do you feel that you are “preaching to the choir” in the sense that everybody in the room is a Kamelot fan already as opposed to someone who is new to the band. Do you even worry about this.

Khan: This doesn’t bother me. I mean there is always going to be new people where someone brings their girlfriend or boyfriend or a group of people bring someone new because they liked what they saw the last time. It keeps adding to the existing Kamelot fans. It’s not really something I tend to worry about

PiercingMetal: I’m not asking that to make you worry, its just that I have heard in the past from some bands who feel at these headlining shows that everyone in attendance already is a fan who has seen them before, and has the CD, or the T-shirt. They tend to think that there is not a lot of new people coming. Yet the conclusion I come to, and Tom tended to agree with me is that if you are playing to a full room this is not at all a bad night.

Khan: No, I agree as well, and I know for sure that there is a lot of people out there who discovered about Kamelot on “Ghost Opera”.

PiercingMetal: Yet I remember this very well, for it was when you first came through here for “The Black Halo”. We sat and we talked not too far away from where we are now at this same venue, and you told me that you were surprised that the venue was full.

Khan: Well, it wasn’t as full as these last two gigs but it was really good for a first time and it did surprise us. In the end it is just something that we don’t worry about that’s for sure and as I said I know for sure that a lot of people have discovered us at these shows. You either have to be friends with someone who already knows about Kamelot or you gotta come here as a friend of somebody who is coming to the show and recommended Kamelot to you and convinced you to come to the show. Or you discover the band with that last record and then you are a new fan. I mean how else does it happen.

PiercingMetal: The other question I have is could it be better for Kamelot to have these headlining gigs in a region like the states or trying to get on some sort of massive tour like an Ozzfest. Please bear in mind that I know about those kinds of tours costing a lot of money to be on.

Khan: I really wouldn’t mind doing that but I am not sure about how much a show like that actually affects us sales wise. I have no idea but probably quite a bit, yet like you said they cost a lot of money. This is not only about the money to be paid to do it, because a lot of people decide who is actually going to end up doing those shows and in what area. I wouldn’t mind doing it but I have a great time doing what I do now and eventually maybe we will do something like that but if we don’t – I don’t really care.

PiercingMetal: Who would you say inspires Kamelot as a band today?

Khan: I don’t think that there have been any artists in years have been doing that for me. I tend to listen to my old CD’s from time to time for certain atmospheres and all, but nothing really affects the band or the song-writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t listen to other bands

PiercingMetal: Given the success of “One Cold Winters Night” and given that we often see bands doing a tour, then a DVD, another tour, and then another DVD. Do you think we shall see “Ghost Opera” released as a full DVD as well.

Khan: No, definitely not. We are however talking about doing videos of all the songs and we are a little bit closer to getting there. A full live DVD is not going to happen because we don’t want to re-do something like “One Cold Winter’s Night”. That thing only came out last Christmas so it will probably be a long time before we release another live DVD again.

PiercingMetal: It’s probably too early to say but are you thinking of new music for the next record already, or are you the kind of band that writes more songs than you need.

Khan: We haven’t started thinking about the next record yet because it’s been so busy since last Fall.

PiercingMetal: Not that I think you have spare time, but what are you guys doing in it when you even have it.

Khan: We do have it sometimes but with me traveling abroad so much that when I am home, everybody wants a piece of me – My Mom, my Dad, my Grandparents and friends. My Wife of course and our new little six-month old kid. And when I am home, I don’t just get to sit there either because my wife wants to go out and get some vacation or see friends. I get stuck in that eternal struggle against time and I understand them because I am always away from home. For like half the year I am gone.

PiercingMetal: Would you say that you were listening to anything in particular today as far as music is concerned. What about TV?

Khan: Well the last CD I bought was the one by Amy Winehouse – I also like the last Dimmu Borgir CD “In Sorte Diaboli”, but its not like I get to listen to a lot of music.

PiercingMetal: Thoughts on the internet mediums for a band like Kamelot and I am referring to the My Space or You Tube stuff.

Khan: They have been a big help from the beginning and I am not even sure that the collaboration that we have in Kamelot would have even been possible without it. While there are also a lot of people against things like the downloading and stuff I think there is some chance for great promotion out there.

PiercingMetal: What would you say is Roy Khan’s view on the state of Heavy Metal today and looking ahead

Khan: It’s quite interesting actually because of all these markets like the US, Norway, Sweden, Finland, UK, Holland, and Belgium that traditionally weren’t too hot on the type of music that we play and over the last few years we have seen it really picking up. It’s kind of a natural development I guess with people getting tired of hearing the same style over and over again, year after year. It’s been quite a few years now where I am not even going to say or mention the style of music but it all comes in waves.

PiercingMetal: What’s the next step for Kamelot in the ever-climbing rise in band status?

Khan: Well we still have the bulk of the US tour left. After that’s done we are going to have a couple of weeks for vacation.

Editor’s Note: This was the fourth date for those at home who might be interested in knowing that.

PiercingMetal: Isn’t it sad that all the shows are not going to come as close to as how great New York just was.

Khan: I don’t know about that (laughs)

PiercingMetal: We’re just proud native New Yorkers for ya.

Khan: Of course its always special and while I cannot say that out of fairness to the others I can say that there is a definite interesting fact about the fans from New York as opposed to other areas. They seem so much more stable than some of the ones in the Northern Countries or Southern Countries of Europe. So after we leave the US and do our vacation, we head back to Europe and Japan. We might take the Winter off since that’s what we really want to do and if we don’t there is a chance that we will tour America again. There are also some releases that we are going to do which I really can’t talk too much about. However I can say that I am going to be very, very busy for the next couple of years.

PiercingMetal: Closing thoughts or anything else you want to put out there for readers.

Khan: Thanks for the support as always. We’ll see you on tour soon.

Roy then mingled with others who had been waiting to see him and to pose for some photos. It was another night of success in Kamelot’s personal diary for them to remember forever. I look forward to many more. Make sure you check out “Ghost Opera” if you haven’t already done so.Label: SPV Records

Interviewed By: Ken Pierce

Interview Date: 8/19/2007

Interview with Khan

Interview with Khan (vocals)

Interview conducted by Sargon the Terrible

July 30, 2007

These days, Kamelot need no real introduction. All I'll say is that I was very happy to get a chance to talk with singer Roy Khan, who was a very cool guy to chat with.

Khan: Hi this is Khan from Kamelot.

Sargon: Hi!

Khan: Hi, is this Paul?

Sargon: Yes, yes this is. From Metalcrypt.com.

Khan: Nice talking to you.

Sargon: Very nice talking to you. I have been a big big fan for many years.

Sargon: Yeah, I think I remember reading that. But of course, that was a long time ago. You guys are based in Florida.

Khan: Yes.

Sargon: You've been living in Florida yourself for what? Six, seven years now?

Khan: No, I live in Norway. I'm Norwegian.

Sargon: Oh, I know that (laughs)

Khan: I've never lived in Florida, the rest of the guys live there though.

Sargon: Okay, I remember reading years and years ago that you were going to be moving to the US, but-

Khan: I talked about it, and I thought about it for a long time. But I have friends and family here, and the climate...I just never took the step and moved over.

Sargon: Yeah, Florida is kind of a big climatic shift from Norway.

Khan: Ohhh yeah. It's the opposite: flat, ocean all over the place, and the temperatures of course are...different.

Sargon: Yeah, those Florida summers are kind of a lot to take if you're not used to it.

Khan: Yeah, I think it's a little bit too much for me, the heat down there. I'm all right indoors of course, because everybody has air conditioning, but being outside...errr, it's a little bit tough on me.

Sargon: You doing a lot of interviews today?

Khan: Ummm, every night. We do a lot of interviews about a month before the release and then a couple of weeks after, so I'm getting used to it now.

Sargon: Right, I have to remember that Ghost Opera just got released, what? A couple of weeks ago? I had a promo so I've had it in continuous rotation for like a month now-

Khan: Aha!

Sargon: So, let me ask you some questions here. This is my first live phone interview, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm not as pro at this, but I'll give it a shot.

Khan: Go on.

Sargon: I'll try not to ask too many questions you've been asked a million times, but let's talk about your background a little bit. I know you're from Norway, I know you studied opera for some time...so what was it that first made you want to be a singer?

Khan: Ummmmm. Well, I started playing the clarinet when I was like nine years old. And I both attended the school core and took private lessons. And then I started playing piano when I was 12-13 years old. And along the way I, you know, sang in the shower and in front of the mirror, like a lot of kids I guess. But it wasn't until I tried to attend this musical school with piano as my main instrument, and that didn't work out because the competition

between piano players was really, really tough. I simply hadn't played piano enough, or long enough, to cut it. But they asked me if I liked singing - and I'd always liked singing - so they advised me to try that instead, have vocals as my main instrument. And that worked. So then I started singing classical, and people told me that I had certain talent and I should go further with it. So after that I took a year and a half with classical and a year and a half-two years maybe, with private lessons. And then I joined a metal band here in Norway, and had to choose: opera or metal. Because my teacher told me that I couldn't do both of them - at least not at the same time.

Sargon: Despite that some people do-

Khan: Yeah, yeah some people do. The way I sing in Kamelot, is pretty different from the way you do operatic vocals. The whole form of the opera is a bit stiff, you know? And I like heavy guitars. I had a chance to join a band that was playing the kind of music I'd been listening to for years, so...my choice was pretty simple.

Sargon: The band has changed and developed a lot, just since you joined Kamelot with The Fourth Legacy. Is this the direction you've always consciously wanted to push the band in? Not just you, but the whole band.

Khan: Oh yeah, absolutely. And of course the difference between Fourth Legacy and the earlier albums is one: me being part of the songwriting from day one, and it's also that we found Sascha (Paeth) and Miro, our producers. But Tom (Youngblood - Guitars) also wanted to take the band in a different direction. And me joining as the singer gave the band a different dynamic - just working with new people inspires you to write different stuff. So, I think the direction we've been going is the thought both me and Tom had.

Sargon: So: Ghost Opera. I've listened to the new album a lot, and I've noticed it's not as dense as Black Halo, is that something you wanted to do on purpose?

Khan: Hmmmm.(makes thinking noises) Yeah...we don't really approach the songwriting as analytically as some people tend to think. I think it's a natural development in our songwriting. The only thing that we knew was going to be different when we sat down and started writing it was that it was not going to be a concept record. Which meant we could just sit down and throw out all the ideas that we had, musically, without having to worry about the lyrics, or the lyrical theme before we did it, and I think that we all found it amazingly refreshing. I think that in itself led us to try out different things - for sure it made the songwriting process more free, in a way. And much more directly than ever before we let the music inspire the lyrics.

Sargon: Yeah, I noticed that the lyrics -again - are not as dense as before.

(minor technical difficulties ensue)

Khan: Where was I? Oh, lyrics. Yeah, the lyrics are - on almost every song - directly inspired by the music. And that might have changed the lyrics slightly...I'm not sure, actually. I have a certain style of writing, and it's not too different...but then I haven't really sat down and analyzed it. Of course you don't have this big story that has to...we didn't have to make sure every song fit, and make every song part of the whole. There are no interludes, and the album's a little bit shorter...

Sargon: Yeah, I noticed that too, that the songs were of a more uniform length. Was that a reaction to playing live so much? I know you guys toured a lot for the last album.

Khan: I think it was more a reaction to, y'know, the last two albums that we did - Epica and The Black Halo - the whole concept thing was something that we wanted to not do this time. And we always had a song that was either several parts or very long. And not that we didn't want to do that this time, but there wasn't really any need to do it.

Sargon: You don't want to force it, you only want to do a song like that if it just comes out that way-

Khan: Exactly! The perfect thing is...a lot of our songs start with me on keyboards and Tom on guitars - that's how we write mainly. And very often a song evolves just from a little thing. We might just sit at our instruments and play around - have fun with them. And all of a sudden there's a little melody or a little riff or a little something that sparks off and we just start adding to it and try to get to the point where the song starts writing itself. Which is a very interesting process, when things just flow - and I really feel that was the case on most of these songs.

Sargon: They seem looser, not as busy.

Khan: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Sargon: It sounded like you were having more fun with it. I mean Ghost Opera is serious, but the last two albums were serious with a capital S.

Khan: Yeah, and again it's the whole storyline thing, the whole idea was so grandiose, and we had all this...every time we wrote something we had to think what the music was going to emphasize. There were different characters to worry about and the fact that the whole thing was going to be one piece in the end. So that whole process was quite different.

Sargon: So when do you get back on the road?

Khan: We've actually done two legs already in Europe, two three-week runs before the record came out. It wasn't planned like that, actually. The album

was supposed to come out a couple of months earlier. But we had a lot of...I mean the DVD (One Cold Winter's Night) took a lot of time. Finalizing the booklet and the graphics, and not least the bonus section of the thing took just forever. Having everybody go through all these tapes with our bullshit personal handicams was a nightmare. And so sometime before Christmas we realized we needed more time to finalize Ghost Opera, and we had to choose whether to do the tours before the record came out, or cancel, and we didn't want to do that at all.

Sargon: No, you don't want to just cancel stuff-

Khan: No! And I think people took that as a nice opportunity to hear some of the new stuff anyway, and the tour was extremely successful so I guess it was the right choice.

Sargon: You didn't have a lot of break time between the last tour and the new one, did you?

Khan: The last three years - since we started working on The Black Halo - have been extremely busy. But it's all good, you know? We're definitely steaming forward. I mean the more we have to do the more the band is having success. . . and it feels good too, it feels all right to work that hard and that much when you feel that you're going somewhere. If our records were not as good as we feel they are, or if people felt they were not good...success definitely feeds your stamina. I think the next few years are going to be pretty busy too, because the promotion for this album - the whole promotional machinery is much bigger this time. I guess we just have to be careful we're not burning out, but up 'til now it's been a lot of fun. As long as this thing is interesting to us and the band keeps rolling and we're having fun, I think we're gonna keep the pace.

Sargon: I think it's pretty remarkable that since you joined there hasn't been a change in personnel. I mean you added Oliver (Palotai), as a keyboard player, but you haven't lost anybody. Not many bands can go six-seven years without losing a band member, so you guys must be pretty tight.

Khan: You know, I never thought about that, but yeah. Everybody in the band is happy about their own personal situation. Both me and Tom are happy to have been able to take this - take our hobby - to this level. I mean it's every kid musician's dream to be able to live off of music-

Sargon: Every artist's dream-

Khan: Yeah! Exactly, and here we are. Of course there's a lot of factors that count in that. It's not just me and Tom, it's the whole band. And producers, engineers, the people that do backup vocals and guest instruments. Webmasters, promoters, the label - there's so many people working on this and a very important task for me and Tom is to make sure everyone has the same focus. To make sure everyone is focused on the same goals that we are aiming for, because otherwise there's going to be conflicts.

Sargon: And when you're on the road or in the studio as much as you guys are, you don't want conflicts.

Khan: Yeah, I mean we spend a lot of time together, and it's important to make sure everybody's happy, and make sure that everybody's work situation is good.

Sargon: So something I've always wanted to ask you about: There's a lot of themes, in your lyrics, of loss, especially lost love and similar things-

Khan: Uh-huh

Sargon: I've just wondered does that arise from your personal life in some way?

Khan: Yeah, that's personal. Ummmm. I went through a relationship that lasted - oh, years, I think it was ten, eleven years. And there were like ten ups and downs - we were together nine times I think, and I wasn't really with anyone else in between either. And we did manage to keep it together. That relationship is a big inspiration for me in all these songs -

Sargon: Whew! I'm just glad nobody died, because some of your songs -

Khan: No, nobody died. But it was dramatic enough, at the beginning, and it hit me hard. I think a lot of people have that kind of experience, and I don't know if my personal story is extraordinary, but it was quite traumatic for me, and left some marks on my soul, or whatever you want to call it.

Sargon: I've always wondered about that. It's unusual - especially for a metal band - for lyrics to be so personal. Kind of off that subject, what are your favorite songs to actually perform live?

Khan: Welllll, we've reached the point now where almost all of the songs are a ball for us onstage, but "March Of Mephisto" is always euphoric ummmmm, uhhhhhhhm...there's so many.

Sargon: (laughs)

Khan: I can't really pick, but "March Of Mephisto" is one I always love to do. Ummmmmm. No I can't really pick any others.

Sargon: Are there ones you like to do that are technically difficult, or challenging to do?

Khan: Uuummmmmmmmmmmmmm...not really. If anything, the old stuff, the really old Kamelot songs. There's a couple of reasons why we don't do those old songs, first of all, those songs were written for Mark (Vanderbildt, Kamelot's old singer) and you can say whatever you want about his voice, but the songs were written for him, and I don't have exactly his voice. I don't have that high kind of growly voice. When I sing high it's really high and shiny, not growly. And there's the fact that honestly, it's not that interesting musically to do the old stuff. When I take part in writing I of course make sure the music is music I like - but I do like some of the old stuff, it's not bad. There are some songs, it's more of a matter of being in shape - I might be sick one day, or maybe I'm not in top shape, for some reason. Maybe I didn't practice enough or whatever.

Sargon: Living on the road is hard.

Khan: It is, especially being a singer. If you tour in the winter, for example, you can be sure somebody's going to get the flu. And if somebody gets the flu on a bus with fifteen people-

Sargon: Everybody's going to get it.

Khan: You can't really avoid it, and the whole bus gets sick. But being a singer and having the flu is a very bad combination. And that sucks, those nights are hard. But aside from that I really enjoy being onstage.

Sargon: Do you have stuff you do on the road expressly to keep your voice in shape?

Khan: Um, I drink a lot of water, during the day. And at least one hour before the gig I start warming up. I jog, I do pushups or situps, just to get my body warm, and then I do my little warmup exercises - preferably in the shower, not necessarily in the shower but in a room where there is a shower to keep the hot water steaming. I just stand there like I'm in a sauna. And I drink a lot of hot tea with honey, just regular stuff...oh and I like to brush my teeth just before I go onstage - that's kind of an odd thing.

And you have to adjust to the sound. Every venue, every monitor, every PA system has a different sound that you have to adapt to in a way. And you have to feel out the audience and all that - it normally takes a couple of songs to get into it.

Sargon: So is this, right now, where you wanted to be, when you started as a musician?

Khan: Oh yeah, absolutely. Of course every musician wants to play arenas. But our main goal is that we keep feeling that we've developed, that we've managed to keep the whole thing interesting to ourselves. And that we're having fun - that's also very important. And deal with people who know what they're doing, and are, you know...just nice (laughs). We spend so much time together and we try to work with people that are nice to work with.

Sargon: So I was going to ask 'what is your greatest satisfaction as a musician?' but that's obviously what you're doing right now. I've heard some talk about you maybe doing a solo album, is that a possibility?

Khan: Absolutely. All of the songs are there, and of course a lot of the songs end up - either the whole song, or parts of the song from my solo thing, end up on Kamelot stuff. But I've got plenty of songs, and a lot of it is quite different from Kamelot. Being the singer, and being such a big part of Kamelot, it will be hard not to make it sound like Kamelot. But the main reason I haven't gone ahead and done it is that Kamelot keeps me so busy. And right after you finish with a big production like we do, you don't really feel like heading into another one. And there's not really that much space between each project or each tour. So it's an energy surplus thing and it's also that I get really artistically and musically satisfied in Kamelot, so there's not like this big urge to do it. I'm sure it's going to happen at some point, but I don't know - I've been talking about it for years. We'll see. (laughs)

Sargon: I figured it was just a matter of being busy, you haven't really had a break for the last 3 years or so.

Khan: Well when I had three weeks off I could have gone ahead and started. But I just needed some time to recharge my batteries.

Sargon: Looks like you're not going to get that anytime soon-

Khan: Well, umm. I think the next record will be...I think we'll wait a little longer with the next record. So maybe next year or something, I don't know. I know Tom is thinking about something, but of course it makes the most sense for us to make sure Kamelot is running well and healthy. But as soon as there's time and energy, I should start on it, at least.

Sargon: I read a long time ago that Tom was going to try and do a project with Mark Vanderbildt - the old singer, but I never heard anything else about that.

Khan: No, I don't think that ever went past just the idea. I don't know, but I don't think that's something Tom is thinking about anymore.

Sargon: Well that's too bad. I don't think Mark compared with you as a singer, but I still liked him.

Khan: Yeah, absolutely. Actually I have no idea, I've never met him. I don't even know if he's still singing. I know he came to a gig of ours in Florida once, but I didn't meet him, he never came backstage.

Sargon: Is it true they made you skydive before you could join the band, or is that just a rumor?

Khan: (Laughs) Yeah, I mean obviously that was a PR gimmick. But we did skydive in Florida. It was a pretty scary experience, and actually it was only me and Tom and the keyboard player that ended up doing it. It was pretty cool, don't know if I'll do it again though.

Sargon: So is there something you never get asked that you wish people would ask?

Khan: (Laughs) Not really. I get a lot of different questions, but now, I think that pretty much covered it.

Khan interview

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Roy Khan, vocalist of the symphonic power metal band, Kamelot, about the release of their new album, Ghost Opera (see the review in this month's issue).

Partha(MR): Thanks for calling, I’m excited to be able to talk to you.

Roy Khan of Kamelot (RK): A very important part of my job.

MR: How long has this press tour been going on for you.

RK: Aaaaaah, it was started in April, beginning of April on the tour and then we….every night for two weeks, between the first two legs here, and I’ve been doing this every night for two weeks, and then I’m going to do it for another week. I get to talk a lot about my self.

MR: So when’s the tour in the US start? You’re not coming here until August I think.

RK: Yeah, we’re just about to set up a show in Florida on the 15th of August, which is going to be the first one. We’re going to do that right in the middle of rehearsals, and we’re going tour for a month or so.

MR: Looking at the schedule, I think I’m going to have to make a trip down to Chicago area.

RK: No, not really, the band, you know, or the song just come naturally in a way. We don’t really approach the songwriting as analytically as a lot of people seem to think. It’s slightly more monotonous than the previous records we’ve done. And the lyrical themes are mainly dealing with death and despair and hopeless love. Not that we haven’t dealt with those themes in the past, but there’s probably….more of it on this record than on any other record. The result is a more dark edge, I think.

MR: It seems like there’s more of a, to use a word, opera touch, a little more, not dramatic…all you music is really grandiose, glorious stuff, so…

RK: It’s very important for us to maintain the sound that we’ve found, but it’s also very important for us to always try to change slightly, to stretch in different directions with every release, so that we manage to keep this whole thing interesting for ourselves.

MR: So that you don’t accused of doing the same thing every time?

RK: No, absolutely not. But more than anything else, it’s to keep ourselves happy. I mean, if we were…if we wanted to, we could do the same thing over and over again.

MR: Like, Karma, Part XII? Looking at the liner notes, this is the first time that you’ve had an official keyboardist in nearly a decade. Why was that decision to bring Oliver in officially, rather than as a hired gun?

RK: Well, I mean, the whole keyboardist situation in Kamelot has been pretty turbulent, let’s put it that way. We had Dave on Siege Perilous, and then we had like, one, two, three, at least three different guys with us on tour. And, it’s just nice to have one team to work with, and that way we can develop, and know each other, and so on. Oliver can in here right between Black Halo and this record.

MR: You’ve had time to get to know him….

RK: We quite instantly understood that this was our guy. He didn’t get in early enough to be able to take part in the songwriting. He’s a pretty good songwriter, so I’m pretty we’re going to use some of his stuff in the future. And also, there’s the awkward situation of Miro still doing orchestral arrangements and choirs and stuff. But Oliver is first and foremost a very nice addition to our live performance. Obviously as keyboard in Kamelot you have to have a slight overview over classical playing, and there’s everything a keyboarder can think of that needs to be done in Kamelot. There’s shredding solos, there’s pads, you have to have…you have to know your equipment. There’s a lot of classical stuff, there’s a lot of piano, and rhythmically, it’s also quite tricky in some parts. He masters that flawlessly. In addition, he’s a good performer, and he’s also a person that works well with us socially, which is very as we spend so much time together.

MR: Definitely a good performer. I was looking at the bonus DVD with the album, with the Ghost Opera video, the making of. Very interesting, you always see the making of extras on movie DVDs, and see how much work goes into it. He’s doing the whole headbanging, circular hair thing.

RK: (laughs)

MR: So when it comes to making a video and you’re standing with a blue wall behind you and a green wall in front of you, is it hard to generate the same emotion that you would when you’re getting the live feedback from an audience?

RK: Well, it’s not quite the same, but of course you know, being an actor is a small part of what we’re doing. I guess we have good imaginations. These are all roles we’ve practiced for a few years now, so it’s not that hard. Sometimes it’s a little bit awkward. It depends on what the director asks you to do. I have to speak for myself, I don’t really have a problem with doing that. Acting is a very important part of being a lead singer, at least I think it should be, and I take that quite seriously. But it’s pretty cool to see the final result, when you know you’ve been there in that blue room or green room, and then you see the thing when it’s finished, it’s pretty amazing what those guys can do.

MR: Especially with the way that the making of video is constructed, where it showed you in front of the blue room, and they just wiped it, and the choir showed up.

RK: It’s pretty cool, huh?

MR: It looks fantastic. You can’t tell it’s all digital.

RK: I think a lot of people thought it was shot in an old opera house…

MR: With a live choir.

RK: …which was the intention. It’s really amazing what these guys can do with the equipment today.

MR: A couple of questions about the video. It starts out with a vinyl record with "Kamelot – Ghost Opera." Are you aware of any vinyl releases, you know, collector’s edition releases. I’d love to get my hands on something like that.

RK: (chuckling) We’ve talked about it. We’ve been talking about it. Personally, I’m actually considering getting an LP Player. But I guess that’s up to the record label. They have to feel that it makes sense. Actually, we haven’t brought that up, but that’s something that we might do in the future.

MR: How about the content of the video, is that something that you guys came up with, or the director?

RK: Well, the story is ours. Of course, I mean, when you give the director a story, he might come with a suggestion of change, or he might want to do a little thing here and there different. But the story, more or less as you see it is ours, and it’s based on the lyrics of course.

MR: Speaking of stories, this is the first disc you’ve done in five years that isn’t a concept album.

RK: Yes, that’s right.

MR: Was it easier to write without the anchor, or without the framework in place?

RK: It wasn’t easier, but it took more time….I mean it took less time, sorry. But it’s not any easier, especially not with a record like The Black Halo behind us. The only thing we knew when we sat down this time is that we’re not going to do concept, that’s the only thing that we knew when we sat down. On Epica and The Black Halo, we always had the lyrics, or at least the idea…and it’s nice to have that framework around you.

MR: Hard to stick to a story, but just as hard when you don’t have that red line connecting the events.

RK: Last time, the lyrics were maybe more difficult, let’s put it that way, and this time, we just sat down and started playing keyboard and guitars, and threw out our musical ideas without having to worry about lyrics, which was very refreshing, we hadn’t worked like this in five years. Then in turn we let the music inspire the lyrics much more directly than we’ve ever done before. I think this quote unquote new approach was something that led us to, you know, do the songs different from how we’ve done them the last five years.

MR: In terms of the lyrics, who is, I just see the liner notes, "all songs written by Kamelot," are the lyrics…

RK: Most of the lyrics are written by me. I mean, me and Tom write all the music together, at least this time mainly on keyboard and guitars, And most of it was written during a 12-13 day period. Of course, Tom also has ideas for themes, and he might come up with a title, and sometimes, occasionally he writes a full lyric. But mainly, I’m responsible for the lyrics.

MR: Did you guys get together and hole up in a little closet somewhere to come up with these songs in two weeks, or are you writing, wherever, Norway, and he’s in Florida?

RK: He came to Norway. We sat in the very room that I’m sitting in right now, most of the time. We also spent a couple of days in a cabin up in the mountains, but we basically drank wine up there. You can write a song in many different ways. In the past, one song gets written on the bus, or during rehearsal, or you know. Tom may have written a song, or I may have written a song. Which also happened this time, but most of the songs were written with me and him on keyboards and guitars respectively.

MR: Going back to the video, I just saw a e-mail from SPV the other day that Ghost Opera had been picked up by Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. Pretty exciting.

RK: Well, I got an e-mail note about that just today. I know they’ve been working on it for a while, I’m really glad that it’s getting on there now. We were extremely disappointed last time when March of Mephisto didn’t make it, which was a true pity. But there’s only certain things that you have control over. You do your best and make a record as good as you can and cross your finger that everyone else does their jobs.

MR: More exposure for Kamelot, so that’s good to hear.

RK: The important thing for us is that the label make sure that people hear about us. Not that I have any….that you know, fame and fortune is not a goal for any of us. We would like as many people possibly to get into our music, and listen to what we have to say, was with every other artist. Unfortunately you’re dependent on, you know, a lot of business people…

MR: The machine working together.

RK: Exactly. But we’re on a good label now, and the job they’re doing is really good, so we’re happy.

MR: Glad to hear that, you guys deserve the notice. Let me ask you a couple of questions about your guest artists. I see Amanda Sommerville credited in the notes, the beautiful voice behind, "Love you to Death," and a couple others, I’m not familiar with her.

RK: Amanda has been in the backing choir on a couple of albums. She also did the backing vocals on Abandoned on The Black Halo.

MR: I missed that.

RK: She has a stunningly beautiful voice, and we always want to use here, or expose her a little more like we did this time on "Love you to Death, " and she did a great job, and we’re very happy about the result.

MR: As a Dimmu Borgir fan, I was pretty amused by the Shagrath cameo on the previous disc.

RK: Oh yeah, that was really cool.

MR: Any chance of a reciprocal cameo, give Vortex a run for his money on the clean vocals?

RK: (chuckling) Maybe. I don’t know, Shagrath had a very specific role to fill on The Black Halo. He was portraying the true face of evil on that record. We normally don’t throw people in there to have done it. Sometimes, if people are working in the studio at the same time as we are. Like, Simone (Simons) was down there the time while we were working on our record.

MR: From Epica?

RK: Yeah, from Epica. And she, so we asked her, I mean she has a beautiful voice and a great personality, so we said why not, and asked her to throw down a couple of line on Blucher.

MR: What’s that song about anyway? I’ve been trying to puzzle it out.

RK: Everyone’s been asking about that. Everyone who’s not German or Norwegian asks about that. It was a heavy cruiser during the second World War. It was the ship that led the convoy of warships up the fjord of Oslo on the day of the invasion of Norway. It was sunk a couple of hours before it hit Oslo by two torpedoes, and the 1400 first time at war young German soldiers went down with it. It actually burnt up in the lake of oil that was surrounding the ship as it went down. A pretty tragic and dramatic story. And the story in our song is about a young German soldier standing on the bridge just before this happens, and he’s sending thoughts to his fiancée in Germany, and wondering if she’s thinking about him the way he’s thinking about her in the last minutes of his life.

MR: Thanks for clearing that up. I was trying to figure that out. That’s one of my favorite songs on the disc.

RK: Oh yeah, I love that song. I love that song, too.

MR: You’re breaking out darker vocals, too. Is that processed, or do you have a deeper singing voice?

RK: You’re talking about the pre-chorus? That static, really deep voice? A lot of people call it the robotic voice, which is a compliment because that’s how I tried to sing it. But they think it’s processed, but it’s not. There’s reverb and there’s delay. I’m singing very statically. It kinda annoys me. Some people say they don’t like it, they want to hear my voice the way it is. But that’s just the way it’s sung. But in a way it’s a compliment.

MR: Can I ask you a few personal questions?

RK: Yeah sure.

MR: Do you ever get sick of the Star Trek references?

RK: The what?

MR: The Star Trek references.

RK: The Star….Trek?

MR: You don’t know what I’m talking about?

RK: No.

MR: In the second Star Trek movie, the one that’s subtitled, "The Wrath of Khan," near the end, Captain Kirk is outsmarted by Khan, and as that character gets away, Kirk lets out an anguished yell.

RK: I’ve heard of the Wrath of Khan, but, I had no idea that where it’s from.

MR: So when everyone in America is yelling "KHAAAAAAN," at you, that’s their Captain Kirk imitation.

RK: I’ve never heard that, but I’ll recognize it now that you’ve told me about it.

MR: I wasn’t able to get down to ProgPower when you guys played, but I heard everyone was doing that.

RK: (chuckling) No I’ve actually never heard anyone do that.

MR: Let’s me try your objectivity there, then. Every interview I see, the subject pretty much automatically says, this latest album is the best thing we’ve ever done. Can you say that about Ghost Opera?

RK: Yeah, in a way…I mean, we kind of set a standard with The Black Halo…

MR: …that’s pretty tough to beat…

RK: ...that’s hard to beat. I’m not saying that we won’t, but for me, Ghost Opera is as good. It’s just…it’s shorter, and not as elaborate, but the stuff that’s on there, for sure, six or seven of the songs are amongst the absolute best we’ve ever done, in my opinion. Of course you tend to, since you’re the musician and the maker of the music, you tend to be obsessed with what you’re doing at the moment, which might be part of the reason. But I really think that 20 years from now I’m still going to think that Ghost Opera was a really really great record. That’s another thing that I find a little bit annoying, when I see people rating Ghost Opera lower because it wasn’t as good as Black Halo. They should rate it compared to every other band out there in our genre. I mean, what should I say? We always do absolutely everything we can to make the record both interesting to ourselves, and hopefully to our fans and journos out there. You can’t really do any more than that. We put all the money that we have, er, we put a lot of money into it, a lot of money into it and a lot of energy and time and passion into it. We believe in products, or…that’s not a word I like….we believe in….it’s art, but it’s still a product, since it’s sold...that are long lasting, and we want to be proud of this when we’re 20 years older.

MR: I think you should be proud of this record, it’s very solid. It’s coming, obviously, from a different place than the Black Halo, too, that was a concept album, part II of the Faust story.

RK: Yeah.

MR: Here, you’re kind of starting over…not to say starting over, but it’s a different product, as you say, than Black Halo is supposed to be, and it’s an excellent record.

RK: Absolutely. Which was a goal and a very natural result, of course, considering the approach we took this time.

MR: So…let’s me toss a couple of more personal questions at you. Your own vocal influences, where are you coming from as an artist?

RK: I started playing the clarinet when I was 8-9 years old, and we always had a piano around the house, always played around on that. And then I started playing, or taking piano lessons when I was 12. I always liked singing though, I just never, you know, thought about singing in a band, or making singing my profession. But I really liked certain styles of singing, and like everybody else I sang in the shower, and as a teenager I sang in front of my mirror in the bathroom, and pretended I was, I don’t know, can’t remember. But it wasn’t until I tried to attend a musical school with piano as my main instrument, and I didn’t get in, because as I said, I started playing piano when I was like 12-13 years old, and there are people that had played the piano since they were two or three, so I didn’t have any chance at all. But they asked me if I liked singing, and I told them yes. So it was quite coincidental. I said OK, I’ll apply, I changed my application and changed my main instrument to vocals instead of piano, and then they basically on the spot gave me a place at the school. Because they need male singers, basically. That was my first encounter with classical music, or classical singing. A lot of people encouraged me, and told me I had a lot of talent, and I should go further with it. And after that year, I took a couple of years of private lessons with a very famous opera teacher, or classical teacher here in Norway. And then I joined my old band Conception, and my teacher told me that I, you know, "You gotta choose," you can’t do these two things at the same time.

MR: The opera and the rock?

RK: Yeah, because the ways of singing are quite different. The choice was pretty easy for me, because I always dreamt about being in a band, or at least those last three-four years, and finally I found a band that I really liked, and I could take a part in the songwriting, and they were really talented. And opera was in a way kind of stuff, the form of the opera. And also the audience sitting in suits, tuxedos, clapping, not like me. So I went with the heavy guitars, and never looked back.

MR: Funny how things work out, huh? I put out a note to friends, see if there was anything they wanted to ask, and everyone who replied wanted to know is there any chance for Conception ever coming back? I saw an interview that you did maybe 5 years ok, where you said, ok, it’s on hiatus, but since then, Kamelot has blown up….

RK: Well, the chances are quite slim, I’ve got to be honest with you. We’re talking about doing some more live gigs in December, actually. And we also did like a small reunion here, in Atlanta in the US, and two gigs in Norway two years ago. But we never really talked about doing another studio record, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for me. Musically, artistically, I’m 110% satisfied in Kamelot. And the other guys are extremely busy, too. I don’t want to put a lot of time and energy into something that everybody can’t work full force on. But as I said, we might want to do some more live gigs, and maybe a live record….and maybe with one song, maybe we enter the studio and do one track just for the fun of it, you never know.

MR: Well, as a fan, I’ll always have Parallel Minds to keep me, that was one of my favorite records from the mid-90s.

RK: I’m still extremely proud of everything I did with Kamelot…no, with Conception…but you get to a point where... I travel so much, I’m so much away from home, it’s getting to a point where it’s quite a bit of a burden on my family. You gotta make sure that what you do is…anything I do I want to do right, and to do Conception right would just take too much time.

MR: I totally understand.

RK: I’m talking about a studio record, of course.

MR: Of course. Let me throw a couple more things at you. Ok, so, this is the first time I’ve ever done an interview, but I always thought, whenever I interview a frontman for the first time I have to ask this question: So, how long did it take you to learn, in the live setting to ignore that one guy in the front row who is very enthusiastic, but has no sense of rhythm whatsoever, and is headbanging completely off kilter.

RK: (laughing) No, that doesn’t bother me too much. Nah, not really. When I’m singing, I pretty much don’t think at all. I just sing, and my body moves, and I’m kinda gone. I’m pretty trancey when I’m on stage.

MR: A professional trance?

RK: Yeah, in a way. I’m just kidding. I really dive into myself when I’m singing. If anything, I might be a bit thrown off by a funny comment between the songs, but during the songs, there’s nothing in the world….

MR: You’re locked in.

RK: Exactly.

MR: Well, that’s pretty much all I had.

RK: Cool questions.

MR: I hope it was not just same old, same old, I know if you going for like a month straight doing these press things, it can get pretty repetitive for you, huh?

RK: Yeah, but it’s a very important part of my job though, and it’s also important…what you say about what you’re doing and who you are is also part of the creation of the band, in a way, and of yourself as an artist. And I like talking, it’s actually quite enjoyable. I don’t really have a big problem with it. It takes a lot of time, of course. As I mentioned earlier, we travel a lot, but even when I’m home, I’m not really home, I’m either on the phone, or I’m sitting, working in my studio. It’s quite sick, actually. I’ve got a very understanding girlfriend, so that’s cool.

MR: I’m definitely appreciative of stuff you’ve done with both Conception and now Kamelot.

RK: Oh, thanks, thanks.

MR: Definitely think you should, with the Black Halo and now Ghost Opera, you should pick up more fans now for sure.

RK: It’s going really good these days, and the really cool thing is that it seems like things are moving in the US. If there’s one country in the world I want to sell a lot of records, it’s the US. But I don’t want to compromise on my style of songwriting. Or, I don’t want to…both me and Tom, what we want to do, the most important thing for us is to keep things interesting for ourselves. We don’t want to adapt to a certain trend or style. The band is going to develop from album to album, hopefully, and hopefully at some point, we will have the right back up from our label, and the time is right, and the people are ready. We are already, you know, at a level where we’re way beyond the point of satisfaction as far as artist and musicians go.

MR: I’m glad to hear that, as a far of your band, as well as the general symphonic metal style.

RK: That’s great, man.

MR: Thank you very much for your time, I appreciate it.

RK: My pleasure. So, see you at, what the name of the club again?

MR: The Pearl Room.

RK: Pearl Room.

MR: I’ll be there.

RK: Yup, cool.

Interview with Roy

Kamelot is ready to continue their ascension to the pinnacle of metal royalty!

This is the kind of tacky statement that labels use in their promotion sheets. Sometimes we should take these statements with a lot of scepticism but in case of Kamelot I’m inclined to agree with the label. The band that was founded in Florida back in 1992 keep on making records that seem to be getting better every time. Ever since in 1997 the excellent Norwegian singer Roy Khan (ex-Conception) joined the band things are going upwards with increasing success. Their music is described by guitarist Thomas Youngblood as a mixture of power, gothic and progressive metal. All of these elements are present on their new album Ghost Opera which is their eightieth studio album. DPRP could catch up with singer Khan to reflect on this new release and some other novelties.

Ghost Opera seems to be a darker and more experimental album yet very straight forward. Was it deliberate to go for this kind of sound?

Well the thing that was deliberate is that this time around it’s no concept album. The last five years we have been busy working with the concept of Faust by Goethe for the albums Epica and The Black Halo. This time the approach was refreshing as we did the song writing without having to go by a predefined lyrical context. But the way the music and the atmosphere of the album turned out wasn’t really deliberate. Ghost Opera has a somewhat darker feel but I think it’s more of a live vibe. It is just the way it turned out to be.

I think your albums keep getting better and better. Did you feel any pressure to top the great The Black Halo?

No, there is not really any pressure. Of course it’s great when an album turns out very well but whenever we start with the whole procedure of a new album we try to look forward and not look back. We just give our best each time without comparing it to our other efforts.

Can you tell me some more about the way Kamelot’s music is created? Who is responsible for the lyrics?

Usually the music comes first. It was different with the last two albums as I mentioned but Ghost Opera started out with the musical ideas. We focused on the more essential parts of the songs. We also stayed in the format of short songs this time. All songs are under the five minutes and more straight to the point. I’m the main person in Kamelot to come up with the lyrics. And I can count on the help of Thomas (Youngblood) who as Native American speaker can assist me if there are some English language problems in the lyrics.

Where do you get your inspiration from when writing the lyrics?

When we are making the demo’s I sometimes come up with all kinds of phrases. Just little things that sound interesting to me. Usually that evolves in some lyrical lines that work as a foundation or framework for the song. Then the other words have to match with these lines to create the lyrics.

This time around it is no concept album. But is there a theme of some sort that connects the songs?

Not really a theme but the whole vibe of the album is a bit melancholic. The lyrics have some sad topics. These are some of the heaviest lyrics I have ever written. So there is a whole of a darker mood on the album. It also shows through in the way the orchestration is done in some of the songs. For example how the deep trombones give a darker vibe. And there are certainly progressive elements. But some are more subtle on this album.

What does Blücher mean?

I get asked a lot for that! haha Blücher was the name of a German ship that was involved in the invasion of Norway at the beginning of the Second World War. The ship’s purpose was to invade the Norwegian city Oslo. At the starting of the war it was the newest ship of the German navy but the ship got destroyed on its first journey. It was shot down in 1939 by two torpedoes and sadly most of the crew died.

Love You To Death is a very captivating song with interesting lyrics. What is it about?

It is based on a Japanese legend about the sad tragedy involving a young couple in love. The girl dies at the age of 15 due to an unfortunate disease. But she comes back to life in some strange way to guide her love through his suffering.

Who is the lady singing on Love You To Death?

Amanda Somerville! She also sung on the track Abandoned from The Black Halo. She is an excellent singer. Amanda is also known for her participation on Aina: Days of Rising Doom.

Is there any female singer you would love to duet with sometime?

Right now, not really no.

You are planning to shoot ten videos for Ghost Opera. Very ambitious! What is the reason behind this?

Ah, like you said it is in a planning stage. I can’t say too much about it now. Of course the costs are enormous so we have to work things out with the record company. But we only want to really do this if we can do it right so we have to see.

Kamelot is a band with a very strong image if you think about the videos and the artwork of the albums. How important is image for Kamelot?

The image is very important. But we spend not too much time on it. It’s just that it comes with being in a band like ours. In some way the whole image thing becomes a part of us. It gets part of our personalities. It is almost like playing a role. But more importantly is that we love what we do and that is the image we portray.

You did a photo shoot for Nocturnal Model's Yearly Calendar! How did this come about? Did you like the experience?

Well some friends of mine contacted us if we would be interested to participate in a photo shoot. They do this every year with different bands. So it was no big deal. It was like a normal day of work really…haha Just posing for a couple of hours.

You have a very distinct, dramatically way of singing. I think almost theatrical. What are your main influences for singing?

A lot of different influences and people really but I have to mention Geoff Tate (Queensryche) and Morten Harket (Aha). And Elvis Presley! I mean subconsciously I got influenced by his way of singing. My father and especially my mother were big fans of his so it’s kind of in my upbringing. It was a big part of my life so I’m sure he has influenced me. When it comes to the song writing I’m influenced by the great names for example The Beatles and Pink Floyd. And I would name TNT as an influence. This is a fellow Norwegian band.

Do you do anything special to keep your voice in shape?

Not really. I just try to live healthy. Not too much smoking and drinking. And I’m warming up my voice every time I have to sing. Warm up for the studio recordings and warm up for the concerts. But there is not something extraordinary that I do.

Rock opera’s in which various musicians / singers contribute are very popular nowadays (like Ayreon, Avantasia or Genius). Have you ever been asked to participate? Would you consider participating?

Yeah, I have been asked. But the thing is I’m not interested if I don’t have complete freedom, artistically, with my contributions. I don’t really do this as I don’t feel the need. I can say what I have to say creatively with Kamelot. And also I’m very busy with this band. There have been some offers and at one point I had some dealings with someone who was involved with Ayreon. But this didn’t result in any firm offer.

Well I thank you for the interview and I wish you all the best of luck in the future.

Roy interview

Kamelot is one of the leading bands when it comes down to innovative metal; their power metal is being mixed with all sorts of influences resulting in a very atmospheric total. A huge amount of the success is due to the vocals of Roy Khan. I spoke to him about their recent European tour, the musical and lyrical ideas of new album (of course), but subjects as tattoos and applying for visa when visiting a country like Russia for a concert came up.

Your previous albums 'The Black Halo' and 'Epica' were a huge success and were well received by both fans and the press. Does this out pressure on you when writing and recording a new album? We always approach the song writing process and production as if it was our first album. We always try to do so. And we do not really look back. But hey … you can not really compare these two albums anyway. Of course you can, but the overall idea is so different.

Resulting in a very atmospheric album … Atmosphere has always worked for us and has always been important to us. But now we seem more able to do what we always wanted to do. It is getting to the point where imagination is the limit. We get better of every aspect of what we do. We keep on trying to improve and refine things. And I mean everything; the art-work, the website, the sound, the production, the melodies, the guitars … literally everything. It is about improving yourself to the way we want to be.

You should feel privileged then as there are not many bands that can say so? I do. We are really glad we came to this point, to play the music we love at a point when the genre is at its peak. We are very fortunate to be at this position right now; to be one of the spearheads in this genre, right as the whole genre in such is at its peak.

This is the first album on which Oliver (Palotai) is involved as a real member of the band. Before you had guest keyboardists, but he has become an actual member of the band. Was he involved in the writing process of the album and in which things can one hear his influence? He was a little too late for that as the writing process started really early, even before Oliver joined. He has written some interesting stuff that we are going to use in the future. And I am sure his stuff is going to be an important share for us. But, most importantly, Oliver is a great addition to our live presentation. Obviously he had to be a great keyboard player; being able to be the master of the keys in Kamelot. He can do classical piano, he does solos, he can play great rhythmical parts and he is also a really good performer. And he is very nice, socially. It works out fine with all of us, which is crucial. You can be a great musician, but when things do not match together, it will not work.

The album was yet again produced by Sascha Paeth and Miro. I assume that felt as a logical choice. Why? You are quoted as "They always succeed in getting the best out of us without taking away our typical trademarks." What is it that makes them the ideal producers for a band as Kamelot? They are just so good in what they do, you know. Sascha is good in refining the songs. We write the songs of course, but he can come up with some great ideas; like changing a bridge a little. Sometimes we do not agree; Thomas and I are the executive producers and decide everything in the end. But you could say he is a great 'second ear'. And there were some changes he made that worked out fine. And then Miro has these humongous orchestral arrangements, which … well, it makes no sense for me to sit down to try to do that; it would take forever and it would still not be that good. The role Miro has, is … well, he is the master of the equipment. He knows so well how an instrument works out. He knows how o play the trombone and how it sounds and how the sound will differ when you change it a little or when you change the attack. That is what we pay Miro to do. Ha-ha. We could of course hire other players as well, but compared to what Miro can do … well, there is no comparison.

You could say he is enrichment. O yes, but it s not something that we depend on. It is just all about how we want to sound. We could of course also do a record with just four cellos or so, but this just fits the sound we want so much more.

You have a couple of guest appearances at 'Ghost Opera'. Who are the people present and what do they add that you as band could not provide? We took the whole guest appearance down on this record. Simone is once again doing a song with me. She is on 'Blücher', but it is not like a feature part on the last album with 'The Haunting'. And Amanda Summerville, who has been in our choir for so many years, does the female vocals on 'Ghost Opera', the high line in the background, 'Mourning Star' and 'Love You To Death'. She did a really great job on that.

The lyrical content is different from the previous two, which both were based on Goethe's 'Faust. 'Ghost Opera' is different when it comes to subjects. Let me give you an example: 'Blücher' is about a German heavy cruiser which was sunk during World War II. Where did you find all this inspiration from? Blücher is indeed a submarine which sunk in Norway, in the fjord of Oslo to be exact. This song is a good example of how we let the music inspire the lyrics. We had this riff which had a feeling of something steaming forward and then we added the horns which gave it an even greater feeling of this being something of a ship. That is how we came with the idea about writing about a ship. We were actually talking about the Titanic, as it is the most famous sunken ship, but we came to the conclusion that that would have been to fucking easy. But this Blücher ship was one of the biggest ships in the German navy at the beginning of the war. It was a leading convoy ship which was sunk on the day of the invasion of Norway. This story is extremely famous in Norway but maybe not in other places. It may be so in Germany. It is a very tragic story 1400 young German soldiers were killed getting out to war for the first time and they got sunk two hours before the invasion even started. And the song is about a German soldier standing on the bridge with his thoughts with his fiancée in Germany and he is wondering if she is thinking about him as he is thinking about her.

And what about 'Love You To Death', which is one of the most impressive songs on 'Ghost Opera' when it comes to lyrics. What is the story behind this song? Funny that you pick this song as it is another example of how music can inspire the lyrics. It has that oriental sounding guitar thing in the beginning. So we started digging in legends, myths and we found this legend about a young couple, maybe fourteen, fifteen years old. The girl has a lethal disease and she dies. And she comes back to her friend to be a guiding light for him; a very sad, but interesting story as well. And we felt it fits the music of 'Love You To Death' perfectly.

There are ten different songs on the album, which means that there are ten different stories. Where did you find all this inspiration from? Some of it is experienced by life experience, some by historical happenings, like 'Blücher', some are inspired by myths and legends and some are just stories we make up. But they all have that overall theme of sadness, despair and death, somehow.

You have just finished the European Tour, on which you have been playing some new songs and you have been handing out promos for the new cd as well. How have you experienced this tour, with all these promotional things ahead of the album? It has been great. First of all we were a bit nervous. Originally we had planned the release of the cd at the end of March. We had some delay with the DVD coming out late and than we had to work on the artwork and than we came in the middle of the production of 'Ghost Opera'. So we needed more time, but the tour was already planned. We had to choose between rescheduling the tour and or actually do the tour without the record being out. And we felt a lot of people must have liked the opportunity to hear some material before the cd was out.

You have brought along Leaves Eyes' and Fairy Land as openings act. Did that work out the way you had hoped for? That was great! Leave's Eyes is a great band with very nice people. They did a great job, so it was fun to be with them on the road.

You will be playing Fields Of Rock at the 16th of June. How is it to be on the same bill with bands as Megadeth, Slayer, Machine Head and Iron Maiden? I saw at the play list that you, most likely, will be playing the same time with Dragonforce; does it matter to you which and will be playing on the other stage? Oh okay, that is new to me. Hmm, I am not sure how many of our fans like Dragonforce as well. I don't know. The two bands are for sure quite different. And there are always playing a lot of great bands at the same time at such a huge festival. I can not really say that Dragonforce is a band that pulls away people from Kamelot. But really, we do not really think about those things; then we had to worry all day and that is nothing like our attitude.

Do you like playing huge festivals or do you prefer playing the smaller venues where the contact with the fans is closer? They are both great, but it is like comparing oranges to apples. They are two totally different things. You do not really get to do your show the way you would like to do when you play a festival. But you get to play in front of more people of course. And what about a steamy hot festival in the middle of summer, the weather is good, the sound is good, that is a great thing. But it is also a great thing to be in direct contact with the great people indoor. For the past tour we have been playing in venues of 1500, 2000 plus, this is really a great size for a venue, even when it comes to contact with the audience.

You were to play a show in Moscow during this tour but this one was postponed; I understood it had to do with problems getting your visa. Is that correct? And which band member has a criminal record that made you not being able to come into Russia? Ha-ha! No, the guy that was taking care of the visas waited till the last minute as we were all in different places. And we were all to be in Helsinki the day before the show. But what he did not count on was that there was a national holiday in Russia, which was one of the two remaining days we still had. So we missed it and we had to reschedule it.

Your fan base is quite loyal and really into Kamelot. People at your forum where even debating your tattoo shirt. How do you feel about that? How do you deal with this 'stardom' and people 'devoting' you? Ha-ha. They actually were. Well it is just cool and let me just stick to that when it comes to comments regarding the tattoos. Ha-ha.

With all the touring and eight albums under your belt (Kamelot released ten; on eight of them Khan was the vocalist), how far has Kamelot surpassed your original dreams and what would you say is the most rewarding part of being in the band? We have always dreamed about being a great band. We always wanted to be the biggest from the planet. So our dreams go pretty far when it comes to that. Ha-ha! But that is not the reason why we are in Kamelot; the drive is our passion for music, the passion for performing it live. And regarding the second part of your question; it is al rewarding; being able to make records, being able to come up with new songs, playing live in front of a euphoric audience.

The last words are for you Roy. Is there anything you would like to let the people know about or tell to your fans? I want to say a special thanks to the people that came out to the two shows; the one in Zoetermeer and the one in Helmond. The shows were fantastic to us. Thanks for coming out before the record came out. That was pretty cool. And hopefully we see you guys out there again at the 16th at Fields Of Rock.

Well, thank you Roy. Take care! Thank you Patrick; it was my pleasure.

Khan interview

It all began in the distant 1991, when Thomas Youngblood and Richard Warner decided to form the band Kamelot. Since then a lot of things have changed, the line-up changed several times, and gradually in the course of time the band from an inglorious American formation rose to international fame. Despite quite a big discography and rather a long history the band didn’t have the opportunity to visit Russia till 2007. Eventually the band succeeded and came to Russia, but of course it couldn’t go without adventures! Some time before the concert, which the band finally did in Moscow, we managed to speak to two frontmen – the singer Roy Khan and the guitarist Thomas Youngblood, which happen to be the main songwriters. The talk turned out a long one, and the guys had a lot of time to tell us about the DVD, new album and just helped us to learn a bit more about the band…

Interview with Roy Khan

Hi, Roy! How are you?

Roy: I’m pretty good, how are you, Ksenia?

Perfect, I’m looking forward to you concert in Moscow!

R: Oh, there was a terrible mess about this thing. Our tour manager waited too long to arrange the visas, so it was too late. There were some Russian holidays and he was waiting till the last minutes to get the visas. But I hope this time it will work out! And I’m really looking forward to this concert in Moscow, because it will be our first time in Russia.

Is it exiting for you? What do you expect from Moscow, from Russian fans?

R: It’s hard to tell. I’ve never been to Russia before, so I don’t know what to expect. It’s always great to go to a new country. Judging from what I hear Russian audience is great and really enthusiastic. I’m just looking forward to it.

How did you come up with an idea of creating an opera CD?

R: It’s not really an operatic album. There is actually only one operatic song on it – “Ghost Opera”. The “Epica” (2003) and “The Black Halo” (2005) were concepts. And this album, “Ghost Opera”, is not really a concept album. And here it is – we wanted to write ten songs without any clear connection. The whole process of writing songs was really refreshing, because we didn’t have to worry about the lyrical concept before we did the music. To much greater extend than ever before we let the music inspire the lyrics instead. And I think it’s a new approach, something that has a stretch to you musical territory.

And how difficult was it to record such an album?

R: It wasn’t really difficult. I mean every album is difficult in a sense that we always try to do absolute best, we always try to develop. And we have high standards for ourselves. For example, take “The Black Halo” album, it was a tremendous album for us, because we knew that our fans expected a lot from this CD. You know we never tried to compete with the previous albums, we just try to do our absolute best with the available resources – I mean the people, energy, time and money, because you can’t really do without that. If try to do something, try to do your best and that was that we did this time.

As far as you mentioned your previous works, what is more difficult for you – to write concept albums or just separate songs that are not connected with each other?

R: Of course when you write a concept you always have to think about the lyrical content and make the music support the lyrics. And you also have to make sure that the whole story is connected in the end. It is more to think about. As far as the process of writing is concerned, it is not more difficult, it just takes you more time.

Aren’t you afraid that such work as “Ghost Opera” will be hard for perception because of its difficult composition? I’ve heard that for some fans it’s really so…

R: I hope not! (laughs) You know we always tried to stretch to new musical territory and develop with each release and the best thing is to make an album which we are inspired with. And hopefully our fans will follow us in our musical journey. At least some of them, because it’s impossible to satisfy everybody. Some people would like us to sound as in “The Fourth Legacy” (1999) and some people would like us to sound like even in “Siege Perilous” (1998) you know, which is the stage we left years ago. But we always tried to do our best and hopefully people will be able to follow us.

So far you’ve shot two wonderful videos – one for the songs you shot with Simone Simons from Epica and the other for “Ghost Opera”. Who was the author of the plots?

R: Yeah, we shot one clip with Simone for the song “The Haunting” from “The Black Halo”, and we also made the clip for the song “March Of Mephisto” from the same album with Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir. And now we have a video for the song “Ghost Opera”. And I should say it it’s always based on the lyrics, I mean the plot. And of course it’s more between the band and our director to decide about the videos, how to deal with this.

And did these clips get on TV-programms?

R: Yeah! “Ghost Opera” was lucky to get to MTV, and it is everywhere on MTV right now! Sweden, Norway, The US, France, Brazil and a lot of smaller TV-stations, and it’s great! Video is extremely important these days.

And how did Shagrath get into the song “March Of Mephisto”?

R: Well, we needed somebody to play the role of Mephisto – the Devil in our story, and of course in the book by Goethe – Faust. We really wanted to have somebody with evil voice, somebody who could play the Devil in the livable way. And we immediately thought about Shagrath, because he has a great voice for this type of music, and of course it’s a luck that he lives ten minutes from me, so it was just natural that I called him. I didn’t know him, so I was very anxious, because he doesn’t look to nice when you see him! (laughs)

And which songs from “Ghost Opera” would you call the central songs of the album?

R: Oh, very very hard to say… “Rule the World”, “Ghost Opera”, “The Human Stain”, “Love You to Death”, “Up Through the Ashes”, “Anthem” of course. Well, I enumerated almost the whole album! (laughs) Every song has a special character, so every song is essential. Well the first place I would give to the song “Ghost Opera”, because it’s the title song, moreover the first video was shot for this song. Then I would call “Rule the World”, “The Human Stain” and “Love You to Death” – they would be natural choices for further videos. But nevertheless all the songs are essential as they all belong to this album, and each song is one of the bricks of which the whole album is composed.

When you write music and lyrics do you write about your own life experiences, about things that happen to you in your life?

R: You know, even in songs where it’s not so clearly stated your own emotions are always present somehow. You always try to use your personal experience, because your own experience is much more reliable than second-hand experience. So I think it’s something that is present in everything we do. But of course there are certain songs that are directly inspired by happenings in our lives. For example the song “Anthem” is dedicated to my own child. I wrote the song three weeks before my first child was born. Lyrically and musically this song stands apart from the others – it sings about the light and love.

As far as you mentioned your family. What do they think about the music of Kamelot?

R: Of course all this traveling is a burden to my family, but they definitely like the music, and the understand that singing and writing music is my great great passion in life. I’m lucky to have a lot of understanding people around me!

Do you take you family on tours with you?

R: Sometimes yes. Now I take them with me more and more, because we spend more and more time on the road, the productions take longer and longer. We spend so much time away from home that we bring our families with us.

You’ve released a wonderful DVD. Was it difficult to prepare such shooting?

R: A lot of work! A lot of work! The point is that it’s not so difficult as time consuming. We pretty well know what we wanna do, but sometimes it takes a lot of resources and a lot of money. Now we had a good budget from SPV, we came to the point where imagination is the only limit for us. There were a lot of work and a lot of stress before the shoots, but we work with a lot of really good people so they help all these things to be easier for us.

So you are content with the results?

R: Oh, very, very! I mean the DVD came out even better than our expectations, to be honest. The reception in the world was phenomenal.

Why couldn’t Shagrath take part in this recording?

R: He was busy with something at that moment, I can’t even remember now what it was, so he didn’t have the opportunity to participate. And we couldn’t re-arrange the gig, as the issue had been already planned for that exact day long ahead. Of course it would have been great if he could, but he couldn’t.

How did you get in touch with Snowy Shaw? As far as I know he was busy with Dream Evil…

R: Actually that’s how we got in touch with him (laughs), cause Dream Evil was opening up for us, supporting Kamelot in Japan. He is also a very good friend of Patrick – the director.

For the limited edition you promised a kind of photo-booklet. What’s become of this idea?

R: Yeah, a limited edition is slightly different, there are more photos, different photos, and it also includes a bonus-track “The Pendulous Fall”. There is also a DVD with “Ghost Opera” video and the making of “ghost Opera” video, which was absolutely fantastic. And there should be some more stuff, but I’m not sure. And of course the whole package is really really nice.

I know there was a reunion of Conception. Could you tell about it? Are you going to release some records?

R: Yeah, we did the reunion two years ago. We played 4 concerts one of which was in America. And we’re still very good friends. I don’t think that we’ll release any records with Conception, because it takes too much time and I’m very busy with Kamelot at the moment. And moreover, artistically and musically I’m satisfied with Kamelot. But we’ll see, maybe one day… (laughs)

Maybe it’s a typical question, but nevertheless I’d like to ask you about it. On all you booklets you don’t point out the authors of music and lyrics, you just write “All music and lyriscs by Kamelot”. So could you tell a bit more about the working process? Do you compose the stuff separately or do you work on it together?

R: Actually we write the music together with Thomas. And I write most of the lyrics. But each band member may contribute whatever he wants, especially to the lyrics, each of band members has his ideas for it, for the song-titles. But we write the music together with Thomas.

Let’s pass over to you voice. Could you tell about the lessons that you were taking? Do you think they help you now?

R: I studied classical singing for one year in one musical school. After this one year in this musical school a lot of people were inspiring me to go further with it, because they felt that I had a talent for it. I started taking lessons from one Norwegian opera singer; she is on of the three really famous opera divas in Norway. And she saw some potential in me; we really wanted me to aim for the operatic singing, for the opera school in Norway which was taking students every third year. But in the meantime I started my own band Conception that you mentioned. And at the certain point she said that I had to choose between that and the opera singing. Of course singing in such a band is completely different from how the opera singer would sing. It’s much rougher on my voice than operatic singing or classical singing.

How do you work at your image on stage? Is it you who is responsible for it? Do you work at your movements, gestures and also costumes beforehand?

R: Of course the costumes are prepared and thought over beforehand, because the way we look when we are on stage is very important. But how I behave on stage and what I do on stage is not really a conscious process. I just sing and I try to thing as little as possible. And it’s something that comes really really naturally. It’s a kind of character that developed throughout the years, it’s not a very conscious thing. I just let my voice and my body do what they wanna do! (laughs) When I sing I try to leave myself to the song that I’m singing.

Haven’t you thought about the opening of the Russian version of you web-site, as for example Manowar did?

R: Ooh, I don’t know, because the web-site is a little bit aside of our responsibility area. There are so many aspects in running the band, so it’s really impossible to control everything. I know that we have a French site, a German site and a Japanese site. If someone in Russia agreed to take the responsibility for it, why not! It’s not something that we discussed so far, but maybe after the gig in Moscow it’s going to be reconsidered.

Do you have any ideas about your solo project?

R: I’d love to, it’s not the question of creativity and songs, it’s just the matter of time and energy. Kamelot is so energy- and time consuming, that I don’t feel like creating something else at the moment. Kamelot – it’s a lot of work: a lot of touring, lots of my ideas are going to Kamelot. I definitely have the artistic and musical need to do it, but it’s something I can’t find the time and energy to do. Maybe after the “Ghost Opera” I would create something. We’ll see.

Sasha Paeth works with you for quite a time already. How much does he contribute to the music? Are content with the way he works with you?

R: His primary role is to be the second opinion, the third ear. And sometimes he says, “Well, this’s gonna be like this, and that would sound better if…” Sometimes he doesn’t like the course of the melody or something else, so we think together of how we can improve this or that. He refines the raw material. He adds to the music a lot of arrangements, and it’s extremely important. And Miro is of great help to us, too. My keyboard programming is much simpler than it should be in the end, in the studio in the final arrangement by Miro. I, Miro and Sasha – we are good friends, everything we do is a big team work, we deal with each other in different situations and try to reach the best results. And as long as the band keep developing and as long as they have the same focus as me and Tom – we have no reasons to change.

Let’s speak about your comparatively new band-member - Oliver Palotai? How did you get in touch with him?

R: I think it was via the booking agent. Because he used to play with Doro and he is actually sometimes. First of all he played some solos on the piano on the records, but Miro still did all the arrangements. But then Oliver more and more got involved into Kamelot, also on the songwriting side. He wrote a couple of songs, but they were too late for the “Ghost Opera”. But first of all he is a very nice addition to our live-performance. And of course in the band like Kamelot we need somebody on the keys. And Oliver is very very talented. Especially in classical music. Oliver has a very good overview over this. And he’s a very technical musician and at the same time he is a very good performer. And on the personal level he is the one who always manages to be around to help you out.

You go on tour together with Leaves’ Eyes. Liv Kristine takes part in your performances. Haven’t you thought of recording some song with her?

R: No, not really. They just support us during the tour, it’s just like a nice package of bands for the fans. The audiences are slightly different, but nevertheless they all are open-minded. Let’s see what the future brings, but we don’t have any concrete plans of having her as a guest musician on the album. No.

And could you tell about KMI Entertainment?

R: This is an American company which is as you know just a formality – making invoices and everything formal.

And what plans do you have for the future, for the time after this tour?

R: We’ve been touring for a couple of months. There is going to be a full Europe/Canada tour in August/September. Then we’re coming back to Europe in October – UK, Spain, France, Holland and also Japan. And then we have some plans for South America, and then the tour the next spring. There is something happening all the time, so there for sure will be a lot of Kamelot these years! (laughs)

You’ve been to a lot of countries together with Kamelot, so you can compare the audiences. What audience did you like best?

R: It’s difficult to say. Each country has something different about it. We were in Serbia in the middle of April and it was really great! It was our first time in Serbia and people knew the songs and it was a fantastic experience. But every audience is great and actually the average Kamelot fan is very devoted.

And a couple words for Russian fans.

R: I’m looking forward for the gig in Moscow! Hopefully this night will become unforgettable!

Interview with Thomas

Could you tell a bit more about your new album? What’s changed since your previous works? The new CD sounds quite different…

“Ghost opera” is a follower to “The Black Halo” (2005). The main difference I thing is that “Ghost Opera” is our first non-concept album in probably four years. But nevertheless all the songs are united by some melancholic feeling. Maybe this album is a bit darker.

Maybe it’s a typical question, but nevertheless I’d like to ask you about it. On all you booklets you don’t point out the authors of music and lyrics, you just write “All music and lyriscs by Kamelot”. So could you tell a bit more about the working process? Do you compose the stuff separately or do you work on it together?

It’s a good question. You know it’s a mixture. The music and the lyrics are written by myself and Roy Khan. The lyrics are written by Roy, but the subject of these songs is created by both of us. So a lot of the ideas for the songs come from me and he writes the lyrics. But as for the music side of it – we work at it together. It depends on each concrete song.

Haven’t you thought about the opening of the Russian version of you web-site, as for example Manowar did?

We’d really like to have a web-site in every country. But I egree with Roy, that there should be someone who would take the responsibility for it, because it’s a great job! It’s very difficult to keep up with the updates that we do on our official web-site for example. The problems may turn up with different languages in the forum – it will be too hard to handle.

Let’s speak about your comparatively new band-member - Oliver Palotai? As far as I know he is the only band-member who was in Russia. He came to our country together with Doro. How did you get in touch with him?

We got acquainted with Oli through somebody in the Doro camp. At first he was just playing on the keyboards on tour with us. And he turned out to be such a great person and musician and he suited so much to Kamelot that we just ask him to join the band. I think it’s a great addition to the band as a permanent member. We’ve heard a lot of great things from Oliver about Russia, so it’s great that we can finally come here!

What was the problem with visas then?

Our European promoter, not Russian, waited too long, yeah. And when we went to the council they just shut the door before us. We really tried hard, but these people in the council, you know… Sometimes they don’t wanna do anything and understand the situation, and they just closed the window, and said NO.

You’ve been touring for quite a time already, at first supporting your DVD and now your new album. And what plans do you have for the future, for the time after this tour?

You know at the moment we have no particular plans. A lot of touring is in store for us, as well as a lot of new countries and it is always exciting to visit new countries. Of course we wanna have sold-out shows there! And of course we want to bring our music to more people in the world.

Speaking about your new album, how did you come up with an idea of creating an album like an opera? How difficult was it to record such a CD?

We just worked hard from the moment when we recorded the DVD till the time it was mixed. It took a lot of time and energy to the details, in everything we do we try to do the best we can for the fans, because without the fans there’s no band.

And weren’t you afraid to create such a difficult CD for perception? I’ve heard that some people didn’t appreciate the new album of yours…

Well, it’s impossible to please everyone all the time. A lot of people take the music and perceive the music immediately, and they like it at once, but other people need time to understand this or that CD, especially when it’s a concept. It all depends on a person I think.

So far you’ve shot two wonderful videos – one for the songs you shot with Simone Simons from Epica and the other for “Ghost Opera”. Who was the author of the plots?

One of them, with Simone, was done by Patrick ----, a director from Sweden and it was two years ago, but the new one “Ghost Opera” is done by Serbian director from the company called ICODE Team. He did an amazing job, I think, with the “Ghost Opera” video to betray the idea we had for the song. The video came out amazing I think.

Did this video get into some charts or TV-programs?

It certainly did. I’m sure all around the world this video is gonna be played and it’s gonna be a success. It’s the beautiful video, the song is great, so the combination is perfect I think.

Roy:…

T: Yeah, and he is an easy person to deal with. Everything was very simple: we told him about the part that we have, we sent him the song, and since he liked it he agreed to take part in it. As soon as we had time we arranged the day in the studio which is about 4 hours from Oslo and shot the stuff.

Could you tell about the plot of your new CD “Ghost Opera”?

The song itself is about an opera singer. When she was 18 she was on the way to her day-view at the opera house. And this incident drives her crazy. And for the shooting we found an old lady who imagined how it could have been. We send the lyrics to the director and he put everything together, found the people for the clip, the ballet dancers, and this resulted in wonderful video. As for the album, it’s our first non-concept album in probably 4 years. The songs are united by the atmosphere.

And which songs from “Ghost Opera” would you call the central songs of the album?

“Ghost Opera” surely, I think “Rule the World” is one, “Love You to Death”. Every time I listen to the album I find the new fresh songs that I like.

What inspired to write the song “Love You To Death”? Is it connected with some period in your life? How did you come up with the lyrics and music?

The song was inspired by the old Japanese tale about the two young lovers. For inspiration I look to different stories, they give me the ideas for the lyrics. So the story is about two young lovers – the girl who is fifteen years old, she knows that she’s going to die in a few days, and she wants to tell her boyfriend about it. She tells him that she will come back in his life-time to reunite with him. And then about 18 years later he met a girl that told him, “I’m your girlfriend from 18 years ago.”

An amazing plot I should say. And why did you choose a Japanese legend? Are you keen on Japan?

Kamelot has a very big fan base in Japan, that’s why we decided to write a song based on this legend.

You’ve released a wonderful DVD. One of the best DVDs on the metal-scene. Was it difficult to prepare such a shooting?

We worked very hard on the planning of this DVD,worked hard at the post-production in terms of editing. We thought out everything – including special guests. Because we had only one day to do it, so everything should be prepared properly. In the end we are extremely pleased with the DVD, with the composition, sound, the performance – with everything. Of course something didn’t work out the way we wanted, but nevertheless the result is great. It’s great to hear different bands and fans telling us that this is one of the best DVDs. That’s important.

And was it difficult to shoot such DVD?

For us it was no problem! (laughs) Because we just did our show. But there were something like 15 or even more cameras, and I don’t think it was easy for people responsible for all this stuff. Here is the Kamelot on the stage, here is the Kamelot here and there, and everything should be arranged. And we could just focus on that we were there for – we could focus on the concert.

How do you work at your image on stage? Is it you who is responsible for it? Do you work at your movements, gestures and also costumes beforehand?

Nono, there is no special person who takes care about the gestures and all the stuff. It’s the whole band that decides how to perform. The band image, the costumes and the stage performance – everything is decided by the band.

Why couldn’t Shagrath take part in this recording?

T: If I’m not mistaken he had some family matters which he could not cancel. So we asked Snowy Shaw to take the role of Mephisto and he did a great job.

As far as I know in your tour Liv Kristine supports you. But in Russia Arida Vortex were opening up for you. Why didn’t you come to our country with Leaves’ Eyes?

Well, it’s promoter that decides whether to take to whole package or not. I don’t know why the Russian promoter didn’t want Leaves’ Eyes to open up for us in Moscow. But it wasn’t only on Moscow that we played without them, the same situation was also in Denmark and somewhere else I guess.

Why not recording some stuff with Liv Kristine?

Well, there were some ideas, but there’s no song on the album which would suit her voice.

For the limited edition you promised a kind of photo-booklet. What’s become of this idea?

Yeah, you are right. For the limited edition we have a thicker photo-booklet. There is also a multi-media gallery of wall-papers and also high-quality video and making of this clip.

As far as you mentioned your previous works, what is more difficult for you – to write concept albums or just separate songs that are not connected with each other?

Well, I should say non-conceptual albums are easier to write because you don’t have to take care of the unity of all the songs. It’s hard to say. On the one hand concept album takes a lot of energy to tie all the songs together. You should take care that the songs are lyrically following one another, and musically you want them to sound together, too. But on the other hand with concept albums you don’t have to think out a new idea and a new plot for each song as in case of non-concepts. Each record is a challenge in a certain sense.

As far as I understand you spend a lot of time in the studio, rehearsals, tours and I think you don’t see much of your family. So what’s their attitude to the fact that you spend so little time at home with them?

In case with my family – I try to take them with me as often as I can. My family is the most important thing. But it’s hard to have a “normal” friendship, if you understand what I mean. (laughs) In the general and most accepted sense of this notion. Because the things I talk about are completely different from those my friends and acquaintance discuss. The reality of the musician with all this touring is different from everybody’s else, because it’s a very surreal kind of reality, you are in a different city every day. For example today I’m thinking about Moscow and three days later I am in Moscow walking around and watching all the places I thought of and saw on the computer. And a lot of people don’t have this opportunity. It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to do that. It’s a bit hard when you come home and start to talk to your friends about it. But as for my family – my wife and my daughter – I try to take them with me as much as I can.

Do they share your love for this kind of music?

Yeah, my wife for example likes Kamelot, but she is not a fan of heavy-metal. It’s amazing that Kamelot have a lot of fans that don’t listen heavy metal. I think there is something unique in the music of Kamelot – the vocals for example is not typical for heavy and this is great. So my wife shares my interests.

And at what age did you decide to become a musician? What age did you start to play the instrument?

I started playing saxophone at the age of thirteen I think, but I started playing guitar at seventeen. And then I started thinking about it seriously and giving it full-time. It’s a difficult thing to get to a certain level as a musician. You have to get a record deal, it takes a lot of work. But at the age of seventeen I realized that I wanna be a musician.

Why did you decide to be a musician? Maybe you had some idols in your –teen days?

Well, when I heard “The Number Of The Beast” Iron Maiden I realized that it’s really cool! It’s a band was like an idol for me. Then I tried to work to create my own style, to become musically worth and unique. It took a few years, but eventually that’s what happened.

You’ve just mentioned that you’ve been to a lot of countries with Kamelot. Do you have time to see the sights? Or your strict schedule doesn’t let you such pleasures?

Well, it depends on each case and each country. Of course I rty ti see around the city I’ve never been to before like we were in Budapest and Stockholm not long ago. And it usually takes some time to take photos and videos and to make sure that I saw the places I’ve always wanted to see. I get up early and go to see the sights whenever it’s possible. Or I can take a cab to the centre… I like to get acquainted with the new cultures.

Thank you for support, we’ve always wanted to come to Russia. I hope that 18 June won’t be our last time in Russia. I’m looking forward to hard-nights with all the fans.

Roy Khan interview:Part I

Roy Khan interview:Part II

Interview with Thomas and Roy

Kamelot - May 2007 Written by Silvia Deurwaarder

Monday, 28 May 2007

Interview with:

Roy Khan and Thomas Youngblood

The writer duo behind Kamelot

Always growing and developing…

Kamelot: when you haven’t heard of them,you missed a lot in the metal scene. With every new album, they come up with something totally new and earthshaking. The chemistry between guitarist Thomas Youngblood and vocalst Roy Khan is a very successfull one. Finally the chance to talk with the other side of this amazing duo. Days before I had Khan on the phone, there was the chance to talk with Thomas as well after their gig at Zoetermeer. The result is a mixed interview to get an impression about their new upcoming album ‘Ghost Opera.’

Before their gig in Zoetermeer ThomasYoungblood takes some time for an update before he needs to go on stage. When I come up with some critic about the light on the live-dvd ‘One Cold Winters Night’ he understands it:

"It was a bit dark in some spots I agree, but the overall atmosphere is really nice. It is funny that you have critics about the recording also, because we had some great reviews. There were things we had no control over like there were some problems with the lights that even the Lighttech could not avoid. That is why they call it LIVE."

They recorded a dvd in Oslo, last weekend they were back. When Roy Khan calls, he sounds a bit tired, but very happy: "Oslo was fenominal, it was great. It was special again, unless we tried to do something like the people saw on the dvd before.”

Busy times coming up?

Khan:"Yes the promotion of the new record starts and I have many interviews coming up. I am very happy with this new record, so it is no problem. I have the feeling that the band is moving forward and that gives a lot of energy and can reload the battery with that.”

Last Tour

Thomas: "We have been to Holland a lot, the fans are great so we come back. We try to bring new songs and a new setlist every time. It is growing a lot since we came here four years ago. We love the fans here.”

You still want to tour as much as you can?

"As long as we can make a good production and we are getting to a point where we want to make sure that we put on a certain standard every time: a good quality level. Next time when we come back we want to make sure that the venue and stage are big enough for the things we want to do. (The concerts at Zoetermeer and Helmond were totally sold-out-SD). “

The new tour has just started, how are you doing right now?

"Yes you have to get into it a little bit: the rythm and the routine. We have been busy with the new record and just shot a real high production video for the song ‘Ghost Opera.’ Probably in a week it will come out. We do an other video before the release of the album. To get the interest for the new record. Also we give away free singles during this tour: there are 50.000 printed to give away."

New Sound

‘Ghost Opera’, the new album will be released in June. The video from the titletrack is released and makes me wonder if it is again a conceptalbum?

Khan:"There are ten songs and an intro on the new album. Lyrically there is no connextion or one red line, so it is not a concept album like ‘Epica’ and ‘The Black Halo’ were. Of course there is a certain phylosophy, angle, feeling or something we want to question. There is a lot of melancholy in the songs, because many of them are written in the same time periode. Some songs are a bit faster, but this time the music inspirated the lyrics. On ‘The Black Halo’ the lyrics inpired the music, so that was totally different.”

The last time when I spoke Thomas Youngblood he told me that he wanted to make a totally different album, so in April he gave this answer concerning the new sound:

"It is maybe darker and at some spots it is even heavier. Not many double bass songs, so less powermetal and more straight maybe. You have a certain amount time to work on it and we try to do the best we can within that timeperiode. We don’t want to wait for four years to releases records.“

I remember you wanted to do more like ‘March Of Mephisto’: is that what you mean with darker and heavier?

Thomas:"Maybe at some aspects. It is hard to say, but we wanted to do more straight kind of songs. There are still progressive songs on it, balades and fast songs. ‘Ghost Opera’ still has the double bass. It still has that mix that we think is important. When we talk about the feelling, I think this album is much darker and melancholic.”

Meaning of the songs

Isn’t it harder to write after listening to a melody and figger out what the words will be?

Khan sounds very sure and straight when he answers with a loud: "No. We sat down with everything we had and of course there were shitty ideas we haven’t used, but eights songs were written in a twelve-day periode. Let me give you an example, like ‘Ghost Opera’ you have that theme in the chorus."Khan starts to sing: "naaa naaaa naa..- the assocation gave the melody to us. Thomas and I, we both had a spooky feeling: it was dark and melancholic. So we wrote the story behind it and came with the idea from the album title.

An other example is ‘Blücher’ where you hear the trombone with the ochestra. When I heard that I had to think about a steaming ship. So I wrote the lyrics about a German ship on his way to Norway during the World War II. Torpedos made the ship sink before it could enter Oslo. The story is about a young soldier who realises what’s happening, trying to tell his fiancé that he loves her. It is a darker and more realistic song on the album.“

Khan is an easy talker and even faster he continues his story: "Many songs are about desperation, hopeless love, and all the other things I mentioned before. Like ‘Anthem’ that is only a song with my voice and the ochestra. It has that melancholy and it’s a very personal song: it is about my fears when I became a father for the first time. I wrote this song earlier, six weeks before my son was born. That is the only song on the album what is not about failed love or death.”

When you tell me about all those emotions I get the feeling that it can be hard to perform that live on stage.

Khan:"It is all very natural for me what I do on stage: the audience is always great. The limit you can betray is the visually on stage. I simply love what I do: I am so lucky to sing in front of an audience night after night."

Are there again some guest musicians on ‘Ghost Opera’?

Khan:"We worked with the same musicians we did before. Simone Simons from Epica appears on ‘Blücher.’ There is the orchestra with more deep horns and other musicians added. It is not that the songs were asking for a caracter like on ‘Epica.’ Amanda Somerville did four songs like for example ‘Love You To Death’and ‘Morning Star.’ Also she did that very high part on the titletrack ‘Ghost Opera.’"

Huge project

Kamelot is always been a band who want to give a lot from themselves. Every album is a very intensive process, or like Khan says:

"‘Ghost Opera’ was a huge production like all the other albums were. Everybody knows what to do during the process and we had a good plan. There is the aspect that we are slowly getting better and in the direction we all want. We always put all our time, energy, money and passion in the production of an album. Maybe some day we will make an album which is not as good as the other ones, but I hope it will never happen. Why would we do that?”

How did the song writing go this time?

Khan:"Most of them is done by me and Thomas. We were sitting down together with a guitar and keyboard. The first thing we wrote was the main theme from ‘Up Through The Ashes.’ I think it is the coolest opening: it is deep and has that contrast with the ochestra."

How was the process of the album this time?

Thomas:"Roy and I wrote everything and the chemistry was pretty much the same as before. We wrote everything in a two-week periode. We sat together and had our ideas. Ended up with about twelve songs and than we worked them out with our producer Sacha Path: that is how we did it.”

How would you discribe this new sound in ‘Ghost Opera’?

Khan:"There is the sadness and melancholic feeling. At the same time it is uplistening and catchy. It is not complete destructive, because there is hope. We are the gothic version of a powermetal band with progressive elements. We have some arrangements, heavy guitars and also an ochestra.”

You worked a lot after ‘The Black Halo’ did you never get tired of it? Khan:"Now we see that it payed-off. We stick with what we have and in a natural tempo. After the ‘Fourth Legacy’ (the first album where Khan was involved) we had free hands. There was no pressure during any recording process. After ‘The Black Halo’ it went very fast: there was a lot of touring, the dvd, writing this new record, practising, and also traveling a lot concerning the buisness parts of Kamelot. It became a bit of a burden that is true. It is worth it as long as the band is growing and focussed. There is a downside concerning the family, but it is not hard for them. They understand that this is our passion and something we want to do our whole life."

Vocals

When you listen to the new album one remarkable thing is the voice changes: Khan uses a different side of his voice and the song get more layers. He explains about it:

"You can hear my deeper voice especially on ‘Rule The World’ or on ‘Blücher. That last song is a very special balade: many people tought that it wasn’t my voice. There is an effect on it, but it is my real deep voice and not pitched down. Than there are little things like on ‘Up Through The Ashes’ where you hear a darker side. I still practise a lot on my voice, also when I am alone. After two years your voice still can change and that is what happens with me also. I discover more new things about my voice and how to use that in advance. The high tones are still significant, but I also get a deeper layer. So I can do both and that is something I like a lot.”

Future plans

‘Ghost Opera’ will be released in the June: the start of the festival season. So I ask Thomas right after the start of an other European tour, what the plans are so far.

Thomas:"There are not a lot of festivals planned. We do an USA tour in August and than Japan. Then we come back to Europe in Ocotber: also going to Spain and for the first time the UK. Maybe we come back in 2008 to do an other European tour for the album again.”

It almost seems that you have no time off.

Thomas:"It does, but we hardly slow down. We get some time off. You have to keep working. The band is doing well and it is important to keep growing and developing.”

Thankword to Frank van Liempd, the crew and Kamelot. Especially Thomas and Khan for their time and kindness.

Interview with Thom

Interview with Thomas Youngblood, Kamelot

Thursday, 14 June 2007

Interview with Thomas Youngblood, guitarist for Kamelot

By Matt Kastner

USAProgMusic: First I wanted to congratulate you and the rest of the band for achieving another album with Ghost Opera.

ThomasYoungblood: Well, thank you.

USAProgMusic: Being a member of the band’s forum, I read numerous posts from fans around the time of when The Black Halo came out saying how you guys would never be able to top this record. Was there any pressure to top The Black Halo when you were writing Ghost Opera?

Thomas: Well, we’ve had pressure since [The Fourth] Legacy. I don’t even like to compare records to records. I think each record from the band has significant songs that stand out on their own. I don’t think it’s fair to try and top yourself. Then you kind of get away from writing the best songs possible. But so far, in terms of Ghost Opera in comparison to The Black Halo, Black Halo opened up a lot of doors for us. With Ghost Opera, the sales are already tripled of that than they were with The Black Halo in the US for the first week, so it’s a lot to do with having good songs and the band getting a higher level of awareness from the fans.

USAProgMusic: I remember a lot of people were saying you guys were going to continue with the style that The Black Halo offered. But in my opinion, what I noticed was you guys took several different styles and went with them. So you really can’t pin Ghost Opera to a certain genre.

Thomas: Yeah, I think we kinda started that even on Karma. We had The Elizabeth Trilogy with a slight gothic influence on the songs and we’ve always used female vocals since The Fourth Legacy. I think on this record, there’s power metal, there’s melodic metal; there’s a lot of rock influences. We mainly wanted to go for a darker atmosphere on the record. We really didn’t shoot for any kind of genre. With each album we always do things different so we don’t really know what we’ll do on the next, but for this it’s just really kind-of intense.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, the whole darker atmosphere on the record is what I loved about the album.

Thomas: Oh, thanks man.

USAProgMusic. And I noticed too, being a drummer myself; Casey’s [Grillo] drumming is really starting to evolve as well.

Thomas: Yeah, you know in the past a lot of the drums were already written down and he followed them. But with this record, he took what we had with the demos and added his personal style to them. Added a lot of really cool drum fills. And the drum sound I think is definitely a lot better than any of the other Kamelot albums.

USAProgMusic: I’ve been telling people this too that what I hear in him is just a force that’s waiting to be unleashed.

Thomas: I mean yeah, there’s nobody in the band that overplays. We could all do instrumentally, or technically showing off type things within the songs, but that’s not what we’re about. We’re about making good songs and having a solid band. We’re not about doing drum clinics or guitar clinics during our shows or on the albums. We have drum solos and keyboard solos and now we have a really cool instrumental that kinda showcases the band’s musical talent. But we’ve always been from the beginning about writing killer songs and hopefully songs that connect to people.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, that’s one of the things that I love about the band is that you all have the potential to just explode as musicians, but you hold back for the sake of writing a better song instead of turning it into a really long wank-fest.

Thomas: Yeah, you know, shredding is cool and a lot of bands do it. But there’s also nothing original about it. I come from the school of bands like Queensryche and Iron Maiden and they’ve always had cool songs and longevity and that’s one of the things I’ve tried to incorporate with Kamelot.

USAProgMusic: Another band like that is Rush and they’re one of my all time favorites.

Thomas: Yeah! Rush was always a big influence when I first started. I always kinda forget about them, because it’s been so long; but they were always a big influence, not just in a progressive way, but also in using the nylon-string classical guitar and stuff like that.

USAProgMusic: Speaking of the classical guitar, are there any plans to bring that out in future songs or future concerts even?

Thomas: Yeah, we’re actually thinking about doing a short acoustic set within the normal set. We’re probably going to do that in Holland on the next leg in Europe. I’d love to go back and write a classical song for the next album and we also do a little bit of that in the song “Love You to Death”. I might go back and write another song like that, but we’re also thinking of doing a “Best of: Ballads” thing and we might write a couple of new ballads so one of those might be based around the classical guitar.

USAProgMusic: Speaking of the acoustic set. I’d love to see you guys do something like that because quite frankly, it would show your creativity to do a classic song like “The Fourth Legacy”and turn it into an acoustic song.

Thomas: [laughing] Right. That might be difficult. What we might do is a cover of an old classic song that we’re waiting to bring on. Or we might take an older song that we haven’t played in a while like “A Sailorman’s Hymn” and play that or take a heavier song and turn it into an acoustic. But we’re not really sure what we’re going to do right now.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, that’d be awesome to hear. Also, about the older material, a lot of people have been asking me to ask you this question. Many of the older fans have been begging for you guys to play songs off of your older albums like Siege Perilous or The Fourth Legacy. So what are the odds of the band pulling out some of the rare gems like “Millennium” or even “The Fourth Legacy”?

Thomas: Well, we’ve talked about doing The Fourth Legacy on the US leg of the tour. The thing about Sieges Perilous is it’s cool that a lot of the older fans want to hear it, but when you go to a show (and we’ve found this when we perform older songs like “Until Kingdom Come”), there’s maybe 20 fans in the crowd out of 1,000 that know the song. So that doesn’t make a lot of sense for the fans who only know the newer material. Another reason too is that you’re there to promote the new record and sell it, so it’s important to base that around newer songs. It’s also about what makes sense for the show. We were doing “Nights of Arabia” for forever which is off of The Fourth Legacy. But we’re definitely thinking about bringing “The Fourth Legacy” the song back for the US run of the tour.

USAProgMusic: That’s a song I’d personally love to hear.

Thomas: I thought we did it on one of the US legs, but apparently not.

USAProgMusic: Getting back to the thing about “Nights of Arabia”, being in bands myself, and playing a song a certain so many times, it starts to get boring after a while.

Thomas: Well, it’s not really that… Yeah, it does, but I’ve always loved playing that song. I like that we have the luxury of choosing so many songs to play and it’s hard to pick you know? Everybody’s got their favorite. The fans from the older days always want to hear the older songs. You want to set to be as dynamic as possible. If you play a song that not many people know then it isn’t as cool for the crowd.

USAProgMusic: The title track on Ghost Opera, as you’ve mentioned before, is about a hopeful singer who misses her theater debut as she’s attacked and raped on her way to the theater. Where’d the inspiration for that idea come from?

Thomas: Really, the idea just popped into my mind from the title. We had the title and myself and Roy [Khan], just started collaborating on it. We knew we wanted her to have gone insane from some sort of traumatic event. So we were thinking what could that have been. Was she on stage and something happened like in the movie Carrie? It ended up being that tragic event that happened on her way to her debut. And every night this woman who never got to have “her night” just fantasized about what could have happened. Then we had the story and then we did the video to go along with that. And I think it really came out great with the video and the visuals. There’s already been some kind of controversy about the attack on the girl. But for the most part I think most people realize that this is a statement against this sort of violence really.

USAProgMusic: Yes, I’ve noticed this as well. Especially some people on the band’s forum were kinda freaking out about that scene.

Thomas: Yeah, we’ve made an edited version of that scene. I know we needed to have an edited version for Headbanger’s Ball. It was actually going to be a little more graphic, but I pulled the reigns back a bit and said, “You know, this is a little too much.”

USAProgMusic: It’s kinda like the whole blood scene from the “March of Mephisto” video.

Thomas: Yeah, it’s like that kinda thing could be considered in bad taste. But I think the way they did it and edited the scene, if it were in a movie, you wouldn’t think twice about it. But people, well not in Europe, but here in the US; people tend to make a big deal out of that sort of thing.

USAProgMusic: Tell me about it. It’s much more strict as of what you can show and what you can write over here as compared to over in Europe.

Thomas: Yeah, but you can show all different kinds of violence, but if it has anything to do with sex, or showing somebody’s legs or their boobies, it’s sort of a big deal. It’s kind of a double-standard if you ask me.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, exactly. A kid can go and watch the 6 o’clock news and see all sorts of violence and far worse things than he will hear about in music and stuff like that.

Thomas: Yeah, you know, it’s just sort of a mindset we’ve been brainwashed into after decades upon decades of thinking like this. But yeah… the video turned out great. It’s gonna be cool. And people are gonna find out about the other one and view it if they can.

USAProgMusic: Well… all they gotta do is pick up the limited edition of the album.

Thomas: There you go [laughs].

USAProgMusic: Another song that I really loved from the album was “Up Through the Ashes”. From what I’ve been able to interpret through the lyrics is that it’s about the trial of Christ through Pontius Pilate’s eyes. How’d you get the inspiration for that?

Thomas: That was an instance where me and Roy sat down and talked about what we wanted the songs to be about. That’s a particular song where we had the chorus and we were thinking about what that could be about. And then Roy showed me song lyrics and the idea came from him on that one. But this record has a lot of different kinds of subjects. Be it fictitious like “Ghost Opera” or “Up Through the Ashes” where that’s a story from the Bible. There’s another song called “Blucher” which is about a German warship, so there are a lot of different subjects. And it’s nice too because for four years we were doing this concept piece so we were stuck to one subject in terms of what we could write about. So it was nice to write about a whole bunch of different subjects.

USAProgMusic: I know what you mean because the band I’m in right now, we’re trying to get our first album written currently, but we’ve also been toying around with do we want to make it a concept piece or do we want to do individual songs?

Thomas: Yeah. The fun thing about a concept album is it opens a lot of avenues for experimentation and theatrics. I want to do another one, but we wanted to step away from that after four years and just produce a normal album.

USAProgMusic: And correct me if I’m wrong here, but is “The Human Stain” about global warming or the environment?

Thomas: It’s about everything. Everything that we do to this planet, to each other; about dying. It’s about the human condition and how we affect the planet. I think with the darker mood, we wrote about a lot of things that are going on in today’s world. There’s a song, “Mourning Star”, that’s about a soldier who’s in a war that he doesn’t believe in, but he’s kinda stuck and it’s about his life at that point. There’s a lot of things that touch on current events in a metaphoric kind of way. It gives it a more melancholy feel to it, you know?

USAProgMusic: One of the things I noticed a lot of the fans were begging the band to include was another epic song kinda like “Memento Mori” from The Black Halo. But you guys definitely didn’t do that.

Thomas: Yeah to write a song like “Memento Mori” is easier said than done. It’s not that simple. It’s easy to do a long song, but I don’t want it to be long, I want it to be good.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, it seems that with some bands like Dream Theater for example, when they write their really long songs, they go into an instrumental section. But when they go into that instrumental section, it’s almost like they’re doing it because they’ve run out of ideas.

Thomas: The thing is we could make a long song and if it’s boring to me then I don’t want to do it. No disrespect to Dream Theater, but I find a lot of that stuff boring. I’m not saying we don’t want to have a long song in the future, but it just didn’t happen for this record.

USAProgMusic: I know in my band as well, we’ve talked about having a long song, but as you said it is indeed easier said than done. Our biggest influences are Rush, DT, bands like them and we definitely want to have some long songs in the spirit of those bands, but it definitely is easier said than done.

Thomas: Yeah, the thing is it’s cool to do, but is it interesting? Is it good enough? We didn’t sit down and try to write a long song. Those things just sort of happen. It just wasn’t meant to be for this record. It was more about writing good songs than about certain types of songs. We could have done more double bass oriented songs, but we didn’t have the inspiration to do that sort of thing.

USAProgMusic: That’s true. And if you look in the current power metal scene and to an extent, progressive metal, they’re all about double bass drumming and in my opinion, that gets over used and boring after a while.

Thomas: Yeah there’s a lot of bands that are going to do a crash and burn because they don’t evolve or don’t change. We just want to make sure we evolve and we’re writing good songs. If the fans get on board with that, that’s great too. And that seems to be the case. And the live show too, it’s been just amazing. We’re just happy about what’s going on too.

USAProgMusic: Another fan question, but they want to know what are the odds of you guys doing something in the spirit of Queensryche, where they did Mindcrime I & II live with stage actors, with Epica and The Black Halo?

Thomas: We’d love to do that. One of the problems is the albums are on two different record companies. If we were to do that, we’d want to film it for a DVD. There would be a lot of time, money and resources that went into that. And somehow to get something back out of it, you’d have to do a DVD for it and that presents a problem with two different record companies. We definitely want to bring more theatrics to the shows. We grew up in the 80’s and 90’s where you had bands that were doing stuff like that. You go to an Iron Maiden concert and you know it’s going to be over the top, but not cheesy. And that’s one of the things that killed metal in the 80’s. Nobody took it seriously because they saw these guys on stage acting stupid. We have to be careful not to repeat those mistakes. If we want metal to come back, we have to make it classy and cool. Let’s not make it a parody or something stupid so that people will take it seriously again.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, metal is finally starting to get more mainstream exposure over here again, but it’s in the forms of bands; who really aren’t metal in my opinion like Slipknot or even DragonForce.

Thomas: Yeah, there’s some cool stuff that Slipknot does, but I’m not the biggest fan of the current metal bands.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, I hear you on that. That’s why most of my influences are fleshed out in the 70’s and 80’s.

Thomas: I wouldn’t be the best person to ask about that [both laugh].

USAProgMusic: Yeah and I will say that if there are several bands that are indeed deserving of more mainstream exposure, you guys are definitely on the list.

Thomas: Oh thank you. I don’t know how mainstream we can be, but the US is definitely getting bigger for us. That to me is really doing a great job with the record all over the world. It’s going to be an exciting two years for us.

USAProgMusic: Let’s see… 2005 was the first year you really had the opportunity to tour in North America right?

Thomas: Yeah, we did like 4 or 5 shows on the east coast. Then we came back and did a tour with Epica to support last year. That must have been 2005 then, yeah.

USAProgMusic: I remember hearing all the hype about it and I really wanted to go, but unfortunately I was a poor college student at the time so I wasn’t able to flesh it out. But that must have been a little frustrating. I mean you live in the US, but you can only go and tour in Europe.

Thomas: It is and it isn’t. I’d rather have one than none at all. I try to look at the bright side of the situation. We have that center and Europe’s always been our stronghold, but the US is definitely growing. We haven’t done a lot of touring here so it’s important for us to tour and let people know what we’re all about. We try to as much as possible to bring the show over here that we do in Europe. The problem is the clubs are much smaller over there so there’s a limit of what can actually do.

USAProgMusic: Compared to Europe, the US is such a bigger market, too.

Thomas: Yeah it’s bigger, but it’s also harder without much media coverage because of the size and geography of the country. If you take a country like Holland which is smaller than some of our states, it’s much easier to gain media attention and let everybody who likes metal to know about it. There are still a lot of people in the US who’ve never heard of Kamelot so the trick is to get the people who are into metal, or not even into metal to learn about the band.

USAProgMusic: And I’ve been trying to get you guys better known out this way as well. I work at one of the Guitar Centers in Pittsburgh, and every once and a while, we’ll play “On the Coldest Winter Night” on the TV’s there and we’ll have at least a couple people every day turning their heads and asking, “Who’s that band?”

Thomas” Thanks man. Yeah things like that help. They’ll tell one person who’ll then tell two and things grow from there. And now with things like myspace and youtube are helping.

USAProgMusic: I’m not the biggest fan of myspace, but I do have a profile, mostly to try and gain contacts through music because it certainly has been a blessing for bands.

Thomas: Yeah, it might be one of those trends that dies within a few years. But right now for bands, you really don’t even need a website if you have a myspace.

USAProgMusic: Even movies are creating myspace sites now.

Thomas: I think it’s a trendy thing that people eventually are going to get sick of replying to their friends requests and what not. But it’s kinda like every new technology. It’s a cool thing for established bands and even up and coming bands.

USAProgMusic: Yeah, might as well use it while it’s here, right?

Thomas: Exactly.

USAProgMusic: Alright one last question for you. Even though Ghost Opera was released on June 5th, obviously the album leaked a full month before it was to come out. How’d you guys feel about that?

Thomas: It really annoyed the shit out of me to be honest with you. We put up sound clips, we put up a jukebox and if people don’t want to buy it that’s fine. But there’s more to an album than just downloading the mp3. There’s the experience of looking through the booklet and just listening to the music and giving it time. When I used to buy albums, and if I didn’t like it right away, I didn’t throw it away. Some of my favorite records, I didn’t like at first. First of all what it’s doing is making bands not release promos and there’s going to be less reviews of the album, which is fine by me. What it’s also going to do is make bands write music that people will like right away, but it’s not something that’ll have substance or depth.

USAProgMusic: And that’s one of the things that is killing the music industry, in my opinion.

Thomas: Yeah it’s definitely annoying you know. I think with the next record we’re going to do something different as far as the promos are handled. But the really stupid thing is these people who are considered “journalists” are the ones who are putting it out there. And that’s killing some bands. You know a band like us, if we sell 100,000 albums, guaranteed 10% of the sales are lost to downloads. That’s a lot of money for the record company and in turn, they give the band less money. If people don’t have the outlet to check out music first, then I can understand, but I don’t really buy into the argument that “Well, I found out about a band because I downloaded.” And the percentage of those people is so small compared to what you lose. It’s all about respect. There’s a lot of things that I want that I can’t have. But you don’t see me just going and taking it. I guess it’s just a different kind of mindset now. Some people are raised to think that it’s ok for them to do that.

USAProgMusic: I’ll admit myself, the main reason I found out about Kamelot was because I downloaded the song “Center of the Universe”, as well as a few others. But since then, I went out and bought all of your albums with the exception of Dominion since it’s out of print.

Thomas: I mean it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have found out about the band any other way. But if I want to download something, I’ll go to iTunes and listen to the soundfile and if I like it, then I’ll download it. When you think about the time and money it costs to make a record, first it takes a year of a person’s life. Then it takes a ton of money to record it, to make the album covers and booklets. Then for all that time and money for somebody to download it once and say “Well, I don’t like it,” it just sucks.

USAProgMusic: Like with me and Rush’s new album, Snakes & Arrows. I went out and bought it, only hearing what they had released online. At first, I didn’t really like it, but now it’s really starting to grow on me and I love it.

Thomas: Yeah and if you didn’t have the CD, you probably wouldn’t have listened to it. But in the future we’re definitely going to have to do something different with the promos. It’s one thing when the record is already out and you lose that first week of sales and it’s not really cool. But I can’t really complain because as you know, the album’s charted all over the world and sales in the US have tripled The Black Halo within the first week.

USAProgMusic: Well, that’s all I have for today and again, I thank you for your time. Also, congratulations with the success of Ghost Opera.

Thomas: Thank you.

Interview with Khan

Interview with Roy Khan of Kamelot by Jordan Honsinger

In the past 15 years progressive metal has continued to re-define itself incorporating various dynamics and a wide range of musical elements not ordinarily found among the traditional metal genre. One of the more unique and ground breaking bands in this genre is comprised of both American and European members who have come together to create intensity, atmosphere, emotion and raw power, all packaged in a heavy and melodic styling. This band is known as Kamelot; and at the front of this creative and evolving progressive metal band is [Roy] Khan. Khan is best described as a vocalist who pours incredible emotion and soul into his performances both in the studio and on stage, all the while delivering all the energy and punch needed to front a band of this magnitude! Having just finished a world tour in support of their latest release ‘Ghost Opera’, and having been going non-stop since ‘The Black Halo’ the preceding album to ‘Ghost Opera’; Khan has been more than gracious to provide some answers to some personal questions as well as an update and insight into the future of Kamelot.

Jordan: Hey Roy, how are you?

Khan: Pretty good, how are you?

Jordan: Good man, and I appreciate you taking the time to do this!

Khan: My Pleasure!

Jordan: So how has the tour been going, I understand Kamelot just finished a short stint of touring over in Japan?

Khan: Yeah we did four shows in Japan, right after a couple more weeks in Europe, before that we did a month in the US and Canada. Yeah it’s pretty much been a long tour now, since the end of March. Of course the summer was a bit easier with seven or eight festivals. But I kind of feel like I’m just home for like a week; maybe two and then I head out again. It’s been like that for the last seven months. I guess it’s also a sign of this whole thing heading in the right direction y’know.

Jordan: Oh for sure, absolutely! Have you noticed a growth in support from the fans in Asia?

Khan: Not really, I mean the funny thing is Japan is not that different from what it was five years ago, whereas in other countries you see that the craving for this kind of music is on its way up. Like even in the US there are a lot of European bands touring over there and our fan base is definitely growing over there. And we have had the same type of growth for the last five years in Holland, UK, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. I guess this thing kind of goes in waves and the fact that one thing might be popular in the US doesn’t necessarily mean it’s popular in Japan at the same time and vice versa. I mean these markets are like three totally different markets being Europe, Asia and America.

Jordan: What is it that drew you to be in a band like Kamelot, with the band being more of a melodic metal or progressive metal type of style versus a more traditional metal band, or even some other type of band?

Khan: Well obviously my voice could be used for other things, y’know I’ve always been interested in Jazz and I suppose I could have even done some pop thing, or something that is not as heavy... even classical! I just happen to like heavy guitars and melancholy melodic vocals. [Laughs]

Jordan: [Laughs] Yeah I relate to that being a metal guitarist, I agree totally! Khan: Yeah its kind of a coincidence that I ended up in this genre, but I guess the main reason or the only reason for that matter is the fact that I like this type of music. I mean I listen to metal but altogether I listen more to other stuff really. But I guess as a performing artist it’s important to get inspiration from different sources. I mean nowadays I can find myself listening to a pop, hit song on mainstream radio and enjoy it, which I guess that’s good but I feel the need to try to challenge myself and keep this whole thing interesting to myself, otherwise I don’t think I could continue and do it, at least not with the same conviction as what I’m doing now.

Jordan: For sure, and enjoying what your doing is a big part of actually succeeding at it as well.

Khan: Absolutely.

Jordan: As far as your own voice is concerned, how long do you normally spend on warm-up exercises and things of that nature?

Khan: You mean before gigs and stuff like that?

Jordan: Yeah.

Khan: Um, before a gig I normally start between one and a half or two hours before the gig. I guess different singers have totally different procedures before they go on stage, but the one thing I have come to learn over the years is that it is very important is to drink a lot of water during the day, so that you kind of build up the water pressure in your body. So that your vocal chords are lubricated from within. It doesn’t really help that much to drink water during the gig, I mean I do that too but that’s because I’m thirsty. I try to drink as much as a gallon from when I wake up till when the show starts, which isn’t that easy because if your not actually thirsty, its not all that. [Laughs] But y’know I really feel a clear difference when I have been drinking a lot of water compared to when I haven’t. Warm-up exercises are just the regular boring shit, y’know scales up and down. I try to do a lot of humming exercises. The thing I try to do is to warm-up in a way that gives your airstream some sort of resistance cause that warms the vocal chords up much more effectively. I used to play the clarinet, and I don’t do this on the road, I mean I don’t bring the clarinet on the bus [laughs], but when I play the clarinet at home it really feels like my voice is all warmed up afterwards. And I guess it’s similar with the air flowing out but with more resistance. I don’t know what it is, but it just feels good. Yeah so I have all these little silly exercises that I do. What else, I always try to be warm in the whole body like y’know, maybe a small jog or by doing push-ups or sit-ups stuff like that. I get comments from people who think that I do that because I wanna' pump myself up or something [laughs] but its just cause I wanna’ be warm all throughout. Sometimes I turn the hot water in the shower on and sit in there for twenty or thirty minutes in that steamy atmosphere and that’s good, but I guess that’s it.

Jordan: Cool, well you mentioned you play clarinet, are there any other instruments that you spend time practicing, or that help you with the writing process at all?

Khan: Yeah I play piano and guitar. Piano is something that I have played since I was like twelve years old. But guitar I started playing like 3 or 4 years ago. I do make songs on the guitar but they’re not really songs that would fit Kamelot, they are more on the Jazzy side I would say. Piano of course, when me and Tom write songs it’s basically done with Tom on guitars and me on keyboards. Of course sometimes there’s a melody line that we just pick up and start working on. But mostly our stuff is written with Tom on guitars and me on keyboards and we just sit and jam. All of a sudden there’s a riff, or a rhythm, or chord line which is nice that we try to keep spinning on. We don’t really go about this whole song writing thing as analytically a many people might think. Its more of a playing with our instruments kind of thing and y’know, we try to pick the grains of gold whenever we think they are there.

Jordan: Before you achieved success with Kamelot were there ever points where you felt that making a living with music was to far out of reach?

Khan: No not really, I always thought it would be possible. I don’t know I would probably do this anyway; I’m just too much of a musician not to go on with music in some form.

Jordan: It’s in your blood your saying?

Khan: Yeah absolutely! I mean there’s two reasons why I do this. One is the process of writing the song which starts with the initially idea and ends with the last tweak of the knobs in the studio and there’s y’know performing the songs live. Of course there have been gigs where there’s like 50 people and you’re thinking, ‘ugh why the heck am I doing this.’ But that was a long time ago luckily, like the first tour that we did with Kamelot that was not good. Same thing for the first gig we did with Conception. But I guess it’s always like that in the beginning y’know. But if you believe in yourself and the thing your doing, and if you’re doing it with a certain focus on quality, I guess eventually your going to have some degree of success.

Jordan: Absolutely, and I think it kind of builds up more of a love for the band when you’ve been able to establish it and work on it and build it up from scratch, its something you can really call your own y’know.

Khan: Yeah exactly. Jordan: So what’s next for Kamelot having finished this recent leg of the tour?

Khan: First of all, now we’re gonna take some time off, it’s been so damn busy. It’s actually been really hectic since we started working on the songs for the Black Halo, which is like three or four years ago. After that we did a lot of touring then there was the DVD, and of course in connection with each release there’s a lot of promotion. I had like one month there where I sat down and did interviews every night. There’s promotion trips, touring and there’s the every-day business side of running a band which me and Tom do. So there’s a lot of work, but now were gonna' have some time off. We got a real good offer for some shows in South America. I’m not sure when we’re going to do it, because we just simply need to spend some time with friends and family now. But for sure from now up through Christmas we’re going to take off. There’s some more video stuff that we want to do. We’re going to start writing some new songs, so I guess Thomas is going to come to Norway in January or February. Then we’re heading out for another European run in April, so I guess in March we’re going to start rehearsals again.

Jordan: Do you think any new songs will surface at that point, for that tour?

Khan: Well the thing is we did two months in Europe this spring, and we only did two or three new songs. So there’s already two songs that they haven’t heard. But I guess there’s also going to be some other changes. We always try to alter the set slightly to y’know add in songs that people haven’t heard before. Its just really hard to pick the songs now, we’ve got more than a hundred songs to choose from and y’know, we only have like fifteen to sixteen in a set. Obviously you’re going to have a disappointed somebody because you didn’t play their favourite song. But we’ve just come to a point where it’s impossible to please everybody. We always try to set up a set which is a mixture of what we in the band want to play, and what the fans want to hear.

Jordan: Do you ever see Kamelot performing with a symphony or some type of special event down the road, of that nature?

Khan: Yeah why not. I mean we’ve been talking about doing Epica and the Black Halo back to back, the problem with that is its going to be a huge production and we would like to film it. Then there’s the fact that the rights for Epica is on a different label and it just costs so much money to buy the rights off of them, but that’s something that we might do. Just having like a small twelve piece orchestra on stage would be nice. It involves a lot of logistics, as these people are not used to the loud music on stage like we are. I guess they would have to be equipped with separate in-ears, and mics on each instrument stuff like that. Maybe they would have to be separated from us on stage somehow with plexiglass or something. For sure it would be a nice thing to do and it’s something that would fit our music very good.

Jordan: Absolutely! Well thanks on behalf of myself and ytsejam.com. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this interview.

Khan: Oh cool, well my pleasure, it’s a very important part of my job.

Jordan: Awesome, well enjoy your time off and take care!

Khan: Cool, take care man!

Interview with Oliver

Kamelot’s Oliver Palotai has took a lot of parts in making scores for the orchestra and choir. We have asked him about it among others.

What do you think about Opera-Rock Show, where metal bands can play with orchestra and choir? Oliver: I’ve participated and arranged already before for similar shows. When it’s done well it can give the music of a band a surprising twist and present it in a new and unusual way. But I must also say that I’ve heard bands with symphonic orchestras where that concept was worked out pretty dull .

Do you like this style, symphonic metal? Oliver: I like certain bands out of this genre. Of course not all of them. If it’s getting too bombastic it’s usually not my cup of tea.

How do you make the scores for the orchestra and the choir? Please describe your creative process from the first step to the last one. Oliver: Before I begin with the first song I prepare a kind of master document based on the instrumentation of the orchestra. Then my work depends if I am hired as an arranger or notator or both. In both cases I import any available data- for example MIDI files - into my notation software. Most bands don’t have the financial possibilities to record with real instruments – they use samples and you need a certain procedure to work with those samples – called MIDI. Then the real work begins. I go note by note through every score, every instrument, add dynamic- and articulation signs, I correct pitches and mistakes. Sometimes I create new parts for instruments when I have the feeling the music needs it. For this kind of work you need to know exactly how every instrument works. Naturally I can’t play every instrument – in my life so far I’ve learned piano, guitar and bass, in the past I played flutes and the violin. The rest I had to study using books and talking to instrumentalists.

Have you got any experience in this work? Oliver: Besides my studies I worked with different classical line- ups, from chamber to symphonic orchestras. I’ve worked for example with the Düsseldorf Philharmonic Orchestra, The Classic Night Rock Orchestra and parts of the London Symphonics – during my time with Uli Jon Roth. And I’ve wrote a lot of classical arrangements.

What are the most difficult parts of this work? Oliver: To avoid any small mistakes. If you don’t concentrate all the time on the thousands and thousands of notes you might overlook something – in the rehearsals later that might lead to bigger problems.

You are a musician. Would you like to play a concert like this? Would it be a big challenge for you? Oliver: I already played a couple of gigs and tours with orchestras. In fact when everybody prepared well it’s not such a huge difference to touring with a rock band.

How do you recommend the Epica classical show to the fans of classical music (eg. elderly people)? Why should they come to see the show? Oliver: Epica’s music is just ideal for that kind of show! I’ve seen many Epica shows and I thought many times how it would sound with natural instruments.

Simone has mentioned in her interview that your are “half Hungarian”. What does it mean, what kind of connections have you got with Hungary? Oliver: Actually I feel more than only half Hungarian, haha. I was born in Germany, my dad came over to South Germany in 1956. Half of my family lives in or close to Budapest. I spent a lot of time in Hungary, studied the language and history.

Will you be there on the Epica’s Classical Conspiracy show in Miskolc? Oliver: Of course I am trying to. I will be there definitely for the rehearsals in case there are questions about the scores and some last- minute corrections necessary.

What’s up with Kamelot? Are you preparing for the forthcoming European tour? Oliver: Yes, the rehearsals start in a few days and on the 4th the tour starts in London. I am looking forward to it.

Kamelot will play in Budapest on 20th of April. Playing in Hungary is a special event for you or not? Oliver: Of course it is! As soon as I am crossing the border something always happens to me. I have a deep spiritual bond to Hungary.

What is the question that you have not been asked so far, but you would be glad to answer? Oliver: I am not much of a talker, haha, so I rarely ask myself questions. Maybe if you’re interested in some new input check out my own new band Sons Of Seasons. This band brings together everything I worked on the past years.

Have you got any message for the Epica and Kamelot fans all over the world? Oliver: Stay open minded when it comes to music and the rest.